Revival
by xingxingzf
Summary: Severus Snape decided to revive the dead ones he cared about, and tried to prevent the end of the world by Harry Potter. In the meanwhile, a certain disappeared lord had his own agenda. Note: This is a Harry Potter and Methods of Rationality sub-fanfic, HPMOR compliant except for the last paragraph in Chapter 121.
1. Chapter 1 The Bat Animagus

Author's Note:

1\. This is a fanfiction of Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. Everything belongs to JK Rowling, blabalbalh.

2\. All my thanks go to my betas: lahwran, pizzahotdoglover, Ardvarkeating101 and Speck TheKitty. You saved this story.

3.I am not a native speaker, and I apologize for any spelling/grammar/word choice mistakes. Please kindly correct any linguistic problems. Thank you all so much.

4\. This story is HPMOR compliant except for the last paragraph in Chapter 121.

5\. As for the deeply disturbing contents of Severus's hallucination, you may refer to the author's comment here: www dot reddit dot com/r/HPMOR/comments/2z94ya/spoilers_all_what_does_voldemort_do_to_snape/

Chapter 1.

The Bat Animagus

11:46 pm, June 13th, 1992

Even in the heavenly euphoria, Severus Snape knew there was something deeply wrong with what he was doing. He was quite convinced that his conduct toward the pregnant red-haired woman was for the highest moral reasons. He knew he needed to do this to prevent evil – some evil with a name like Harold, or Harrison, or something like that – from being born, and destroying the universe. He also knew for a fact that all his violent penetrations, all the beatings, and all the torture he inflicted, were necessary and for the greater good. And not to mention the waves of euphoria that entered his entire body with each of his movement, as if he had been hoping for this moment all his life. But the desperate screams and pleading coming from the woman were disturbing, and it prevented him from fully enjoying the necessary procedure. He wanted to put a silencing charm on her, but for some reason, he could not. He wanted to hear something from her, but he did not know what. Maybe he should, he should do something, notify someone, but –

Without warning, a wave of strong pain hit Severus' left arm. Severus had been on the receiving end of a cruciatus curse during his days as a death eater. He had supposed, then, that it would be the worst pain he would ever feel, yet his arm now felt as though it was engulfed in needling fire. He barely managed to pull up his sleeve, and looked at his left forearm. With blurred vision, he saw the blackened form of the Dark Mark, as dark as it had been before the fateful Halloween night, perhaps even darker. As another strong wave of pain hit him, he fell to his knees, fighting down a wave of nausea. He was not sure if it was a pain-induced hallucination, but the Mark seemed to be twisting, silently snarling, like a wounded animal. A short while after, the pain slowly subdued as the Dark Mark faded with what seemed like reluctance. A moment later, the color of the Dark Mark had become faintly grey.

Trying to ignore the pain from his private area no longer masked by the pain from his Mark, Severus tried to fight down the memory of violating and torturing Lily. There would be time for grief and coping later. He shook his limbs in an attempt to alleviate the growing stiffness as Severus' brain slowly connected what happened to his Mark at this moment to the same phenomenon from that fateful Halloween, when the Mark suddenly flared up, and then nearly disappeared.

\- _The Dark Lord just came back, and was vanquished yet again?_

Severus could hardly believe the only possible explanation his brain offered. But the curse was a strong one, there were few wizards who could conjure an illusion that Severus could not see through immediately. And only the poisoned mind of the Dark Lord would imagine such a nightmare. Severus couldn't even imagine how such a thing could have been accomplished.

-_Did Albus vanquish the Dark Lord? Or, could it possibly be the Boy-Who-Lived?_

-_No, talented a boy as he is, he is only eleven-years old. Albus, then._

Severus let out a sigh of relief, raised his wand, and murmured: "Expecto Patronum."

He needed to contact Albus, to see how he was doing, if he needed any help. As powerful of a wizard as Albus was, it was unlikely that even he could have defeated the Dark Lord without sustaining serious injuries.

The glowing silver bat only looked at Severus sadly.

Severus' heart sank.

-_Albus is dead. He probably sacrificed himself to vanquish the Dark Lord._

A wave of grief hit the black-haired man. He had known that Albus had used him ever since Harry Potter pointed out his naiveté, and that Albus had given up on Slytherin. Still, Severus felt a huge chunk of his heart constrict. Not many people had made their way into his heart. There was his mother, then Lily, then Albus over the years. Now, they were all dead.

-_Then, who do I have now?_

Severus held respect for Minerva, but she was no friend of his; he trusted Lucius Malfoy slightly more than he trusted other Slytherins, but it was for other reasons; the Boy-Who-Lived, a walking disaster –

-_Wait, the Dark Lord is still not dead, he will return, maybe in a few years, probably more rapidly this time. The Boy-Who-Lived is our only real hope now._

Grinding his teeth, Severus knew he needed to find Harry Potter, and protect him the best as he was able.

He almost sent his patronus to the Potter boy, but halted his wand halfway through the charm, cursing his stupidity.

-_You can't contact him NOW! You might end up losing the chance to save him! Like losing the chance to save Albus is not bad enough!_

Severus shook his head to clear the fog. The effects of the hallucination were not easy to ignore. With shaky hands and stiff fingers, Severus pulled out his time-turner.

Severus gripped his time-turner in his pale fingers, considering his choice carefully. He could always go back further if a few turns were not enough. A distant but sharp CRACK filled the air. His head jerked towards the noise, causing an ache in his neck. From what he could tell, it had come from the Forbidden Forest. He could make out no specifics from his current vantage point.

Severus raised his head, hoped against hope that this was the work of Boy-Who-Lived, somehow. Yet it was imprudent, to say the least, to leave things up to chance.

Severus staggered, stood up, disillusioned himself, turned the time-turner once, and began to run. Or rather, tried to. Three times he stumbled and had to use his magic to steady himself in his rush. His legs were still stiff, and the more private area of his body twinged and throbbed painfully.

Severus silently cursed, and turned into the bat that students often accused him of being.

Trying not to think about his hallucination, the loss of Albus, the recent memory of his fictitious actions towards Lily, or anything of sorts, Severus almost managed a dry chuckle: _those idiots do sometimes arrive at the right conclusion, if only by accident. And thank Merlin that the animagus form is more resilient to pain and stiffness._


	2. Chapter 2 The Unbelievable Night

Chapter 2.

10:59 pm, June 13th, 1992

The disillusioned bat flew through the forbidden forest, toward where Severus suspected the explosion might come from, at a speed that no non-magical bat could.

Severus used his poorly-developed eyes to guide his general directions and used his echolocation system to try to detect any abnormality in the forest. Severus knew that most magical concealments were meant to deceive human eyes and ears, and some charms would trick human noses, but that was about it. Severus did not know of any existing charm that could guard against the frequencies of a bat echolocation system, except for his own creations, of course. Therefore, in most cases, if his vision and his echolocation system provided him different information, there would most likely be some magical concealments.

However, Severus faced two difficulties.

First, his vision as a bat was far inferior to his sharp eyes as a human being.

And the second was much worse than the first. Namely, as shown in the Azkaban break-out, the Dark Lord had begun to study muggle science. The Dark Lord might learn about echolocation and other types of animal sensory systems that human beings do not possess, and therefore he would create charms against those. Severus could only hope that the Dark Lord had been too busy with his revival to learn about that particular area of muggle science yet.

Then, the discrepancy that Severus hoped for popped up. Somewhere to his east side, probably outside Hogwarts' apparition barrier, there was a large strange area. Though his eyes told him it was just normal woods, his auditory nerves produced an image of something quite different: an open land with some objects scattered here and there. It was too distant for Severus to tell what those things were, but he knew that must be it.

As Severus carefully flew nearer, the image from the strange area became clearer, and the scattering objects looked more and more like tombstones. The disillusioned large bat then realized what this place must be: Tom Riddle Sr.'s real burial place.

_-Father's bone, of course! Well, Moody and I spent quite some time in vain._

-_So, the Dark Lord will rise again through his father's bone, his servant's flesh, possibly Bellatrix Black's, and his enemy's blood. Damn, that means he must have captured the Potter boy, and will use his blood. Nothing less would satisfy someone as arrogant as the Dark Lord. Then Albus will show up, sacrifice himself to save the big-headed Boy-Who-Lived, and seal the Dark Lord for now._

_-Merlin damned stupid Potter! If I survive this, I will personally administer him some potions of my own creation!_

But Severus knew he would not survive this. Instead, he would appear at the height of Albus's battle with the Dark Lord, and he would do whatever he could, so that the Boy-Who-Lived would have a chance to escape and perform whatever magic had caused that huge CRACK noise.

Suppressing a sigh, Severus chose a tall tree well outside the range of the discrepancy area, yet close enough for his echolocation system to be effective, and hung upside-down on a branch near the tree trunk like a real bat. He turned his left ear to receive the echoes, and pressed his right one against the trunk. Hopefully, the Dark Lord had not thought of blocking non-air transmitted sound waves yet, and with his magically enhanced auditory system, maybe some sound transmitting through solids could be heard.

As he pressed his right ear harder on the trunk, Severus almost twitched. He clearly heard some footsteps coming from the ground. Being long used to his bat animagus form surveying his surrounding mostly by sound, Severus was able to tell that there were two people, one adult and one child, traveling through a tunnel. And then something swung open; Severus heard his probes bounce off of two figures as they appeared in the graveyard. The taller figure appeared to be Quirrell. Severus vaguely remembered seeing that man before everything became haze a few hours ago, so he was not too surprised that the Dark Lord was in disguise as this David Monroe guy. Plus, that man was the Defense Professor, which made the affair no surprise at all. And the smaller figure, no question, was the Boy-Who-Lived.

Severus was not really surprised to sense an altar rising from the graveyard, either. The Dark Lord had accomplished innumerable mighty magic feats, and this sort of thing was quite normal by his standards.

However, when Severus heard the vague sound coming from the tree trunk, including some mumbling sounding like "_Granger shall revive_", he almost fell from the tree. Just as Severus was questioning his own sanity, he heard some hissing sound, which in itself was not unusual, since the Dark Lord was the most famous parselmouth in recent history. But why did he talk to the boy in Parseltongue? Just to scare the boy?

-_But, but, is my Parseltongue too rusty nowadays? Did I just hear that he spoke in PARSELTONGUE that he wants to revive Granger?_

In his misspent youth, Severus had worshiped the Dark Lord, had wanted to mimic the man in every way he could. One of those efforts led to the discovery of one or two parselmouth paintings in forgotten corners of Hogwarts in his sixth year. Imagining himself to be the only servant who could converse with the Dark Lord in Parseltongue, Severus spent quite some time and energy in learning the language. It was almost impossible to distinguish different types of hisses at first, but becoming a bat animagus in the meanwhile did offer him some additional benefits: as a bat, it was much easier to tell the tiny variations in sound. Then back in human form, Severus was finally able to learn the basics of Parseltongue. However, human vocal cords were definitely not designed to make hissing sounds. Severus tried really hard, but until his graduation, he could hardly utter a whole sentence in Parseltongue. When Severus really joined the Death Eaters, he felt himself extremely lucky that he had not boast of his abilities in snake language to anyone: the Dark Lord was too arrogant to accept anyone but himself to master his signature language. Yet, being able to understand some of his master's random hisses did offer Severus competitive edge over his fellow Death Eaters, not to mention that even the Dark Lord could not lie in Parseltongue. But Severus's happy days as a rising star in the Death Eaters soon finished when he realized that the prophecy he had brought to his master might endanger the woman he loved. In haste and in desperation, Severus first begged his master to spare her, then found himself a Light master. The days as a double-agent were no fun at all. If not for his advanced auditory systems and Parseltongue abilities, Severus would have died several times already.

And today, Severus began to doubt both his auditory system and his understanding of snake language: the Dark Lord actually addressed the Boy-Who-Lived as if he could understand Parseltongue as well.

Then it hit him.

-_The boy is actually a PARSELMOUTH?!_

Before the bat animagus could fully understand the implications of this, he witnessed the creation of an impressive new body for the Dark Lord, and the rise of the nightmarish man. Even knowing that this man would soon be vanquished by Albus, Severus still needed to fight down his chills.

Then Severus realized something else: the Dark Lord did not use Harry Potter's blood, nor his father's bone, nor Bellatrix's flesh. He only used his own preserved blood and the mystical red stone.

Severus had not really walked the walks of really powerful wizards such as Albus Dumbledore or the Dark Lord, but that didn't hinder him from asking himself the obvious questions: _what the heck is that stone? The Resurrection Stone? The Philosopher's Stone? And what does it do?_

And then Severus witnessed the recreation of Hermione Granger's body, even without a horcrux, only the corpse hidden by the Boy-Who-Lived.

-_And with that stone, with that stone…_

Severus then realized this stone could be the key to something that he had only dreamed of for so many years: reviving Lily.

After Lily passed away, Severus had been desperate to revive her, but he had no idea how. Of course, if Lily had made a horcrux, it would have been relatively easy, but she was too nice to even think of such a thing. This thought just made Severus sadder. But besides a horcrux, Severus had no idea how one could be revived after their death. There were those so-called sacrificial rituals in plays, and those plays usually ended up in horrible tragedies, in which an ugly sociopathic dark wizard like himself was the clown who got himself possessed by the devil. No, he was not to become that clown. He was to figure out some other way.

Severus knew it was a pureblood tradition to magically preserve their deceased loved ones hair, and some muggles did something similar as well. With some unexplained dim hope, Severus stole some hair from Lily's body before her burial. Though Severus had stopped loving Lily as an idolized lover now, he still dreamed to apologize to a living Lily.

And today, now, it dawned on him: if blood can be used to create new body, if flesh can be used to do the same, then hair…

Now the tradition shared by purebloods and muggles alike made sense to Severus: it must come from an era when revival of somebody's loved ones was much easier, only some blood, or some flesh, or hair, or maybe anything… Yes, a single hair is enough for the Polyjuice potion, so it must be enough for the recreation of a body. Then perhaps I can revive Lily! And Albus! And mother…

Stunned by this realization, Severus almost missed the next important part: the Dark Lord seemed to face something troubling enough for him to allow Harry Potter to have his wand.

_-This is not a good sign._

Then Severus heard Harry Potter's shouting:"Expecto PATRONUM!"

Even through whatever the Dark Lord put on for visual deception, even with the bat's poor eyes, he saw the unusual bright white light, the light as a blazing aura of silver fire.

As Severus was trying to figure out what all that meant, he strained to hearsome of the Dark Lord's words: "_Your Patronus draws upon your life as well as your magic … happy thought the image of her returning to life … alive … magical …"_

Having learnt quite some powerful magic himself, Severus realized that these were the key elements of this ritual, which could only be transferred from one mind to another. Here, now, he was only short of the technicalities of the rituals and the stone, to bring back everyone he loved.

Before Severus could take any joy in this new revelation, he realized that he probably would not live to learn the details, or even survive the next hour.

Severus's heart sank again.

_-Perhaps, perhaps the boy will live, and bring back Lily and Albus. As for the oversized bat, well, a Fiendfyre would conveniently burn away everything, including his greasy hair. _

Severus gave an internal sigh, and continued to watch as the Dark Lord made Granger a crossbreed of troll and unicorn. It was a very ingenious way to make someone essentially immortal. Severus pondered if he should figure out a way to leave a message of the powerful wizardry he witnessed tonight, but of course that would be all in vain since the knowledge could only pass from one mind to another.

Just as Severus began to curse Merlin's Interdict, things developed quickly: the Dark Lord made a horcrux for Granger, the Boy-Who-Lived tried to kill the Dark Lord with a gun, and failed. But then the Dark Lord still gave Harry Potter detailed instructions on how to resurrect Granger again.

Severus was quite perplexed by the surreal development of things: why would the Dark Lord revive the Granger girl? True, she was kind, brave, and pure, which made her good for the use of a number of rituals, but there are dozens of such girls. Why such trouble?

Then the Dark Lord offered him some answers: "_Sseer … prophecy … apocalypsse … girl-child … destruction … _"

_-Err, according to a Prophecy there would be an apocalyptic disaster if Granger stays dead?_

Severus struggled to listen more closely while absorbing this information. It appeared that if Granger stayed dead, the Boy-Who-Lived would bring some disaster to the world.

Then this made quite some sense to Severus. That Potter boy was capable of creating chaos far beyond a first-year's reach. And within a few years, the walking disaster would become a full-grown wizard, Lord of a Noble and Most Ancient house, AND with tonnes of muggle scientific knowledge.

Growing up amongst muggles during the height of the Cold War, Severus was no stranger to the words such as "missile", "atomic bomb", and "nuclear war". When Severus joined the Death Eaters, part of him felt that by conquering the muggle world, the entire world would become much safer – who knew what those mad muggle politicians would do!

Though the Cold War had finished recently, if the way-too-creative Boy-Who-Lived was involved, he might create some horrific disaster in his desperate search for ways to resurrect Granger. Maybe he would think a lot of energy would bring back the dead, and construct a nuclear power plant to get the energy. If that plant blew up, and some muggle government may think they had been nuked, then, then… Well, the current Chernobyl area would seem like a paradise compared to what the world would look like then.

Severus wanted to bang his head against the tree trunk.

_-Should I thank the Dark Lord for his great public service?_

Then the Death Eaters began to appear in the graveyard. Severus did not feel the call, maybe because he was still supposed to be in the hallucination, trying to rid the evil named Harry Potter from a pregnant Lily.

_-Wait, the Dark Lord said in Parseltongue that there is a PROPHECY that Harry Potter may REALLY destroy the world!_

Severus felt sicker as he thought of it, and no longer that sure about sacrificing himself to save Harry Potter.

Severus watched dully as Macnair tried to kill the Dark Lord and failed miserably. He might have given that man more credit for his act at any other time, but he was too preoccupied with the prophecy thing.

Then Severus heard some ominous words: "…disposed of Dumbledore…"

-_What? NOOO! If Albus is already dead, who would defeat the Dark Lord? Me?! The ELEVEN year old Boy-Who-Lived?!_

Severus was so concentrated on the how-to-defeat-Voldemort question, that he could hardly bring himself to reignite his hatred for Sirius Black when heard the bark, and the name "Mr. Grim". He just vaguely berated the idiot aurors who never found out that two Blacks escaped instead of one in the Azkaban episode.

Severus was quite proud of himself in being a powerful wizard - not anywhere near the level of Albus or the Dark Lord, but still quite powerful. He could easily overpower Minerva, and could knock down Filius Flitwick within five minutes in any real fight without stupid rules. Alastor Moody might defeat him with his century of experience, but since Mad-Eye was getting old, Time was on Severus's side. And in the Death Eater ranks, Severus thought only Bellatrix could defeat him in a one-on-one fight, and only a handful could escape. But that was absolutely NOT the same as defeating thirty something Death Eaters AT ONCE, PLUS the Dark Lord.

Severus suddenly hoped he had a really powerful muggle weapon at hand.

_-Wait, does the Boy-Who-Lived have a small nuclear weapon on him? And that was what the CRACK about?_

Severus faintly remembered something he heard from muggle TV when he ate in some fast food place during the Christmas holidays. It said something about miniaturization of nuclear weapons. Severus had no idea of how small the muggles had made them, nor the power of a "mini" nuclear bomb. And with a shudder, Severus remembered something else from the muggle news: with the collapse of USSR and the end of Cold War, some nations were quite worried that some nuclear weapons may fall into wrong hands. Back then, Severus guessed it would still be quite hard to get one. But if the Dark Lord already got himself a rocket before the Azkaban breakout, it was quite possible that he also got a small nuclear weapon. And by some luck and creativity, the Boy-Who-Lived may get his hands on the trigger.

_-Shit._

Before Severus's imagination took him to where the United Kingdom found itself being attacked by a nuclear weapon, thus firing one toward Russia, and the world entering nuclear winter, etc., Severus heard the Dark Lord made the Potter boy take an Unbreakable Vow that he would not destroy the world.

Severus almost could not suppress his gratitude toward his former master. Compared to the potential disaster, the fact that Lucius would lose much of his magic was nothing at all.

When later the Dark Lord tried to extract knowledge from the Boy-Who-Lived, and the Boy-Who-Lived tried to stall, Severus was too emotionally drained to think of any sensible thing to do. He only knew that when it came to time to fight, he would. And that probably would be the end of Severus Snape.

Then Severus heard the fearful hisses coming from Harry Potter's mouth: "…_causse huge explossion almosst instantly…_"

_-NO, NO, NO! It does not matter that the boy thinks the explosion would not destroy the world, nor the Vow would prohibit him from doing anything really dangerous to the world, nor what the real damage this explosion could do! The fact is, the stupid muggles would multiply the damage hundreds and thousands folds by firing missiles toward each other!_

Without thinking, Severus left the tree, and flew the fastest he could toward the Boy-Who-Lived, hoping to do SOMETHING to prevent the end of world.

And Severus hit the circle of magical deception, and was stopped by Time.

-_Heck, the Dark Lord had set up some ward to prevent this circle's future interacting with its past! Is this going to be the reason that the world ends today?_

Distracted by the fate of the world, Severus was still banging his head on the Time barrier when the heads of death eaters began to drop like butterflies, as well as the Dark Lord's hands. And then, Harry Potter's stunning hex hit the Dark Lord.

As the Dark Lord was screaming in pain, the previous pain that had hit Severus twice hit him again. The disillusioned oversized bat dropped from the air. In pain ten times worse than the Cruciatus curse, Severus was only partially aware of the fact that whatever barrier set up by the Dark Lord had went down together with the powerful wizard. Previous "training" from the Dark Lord told Severus not to scream when he was tortured, so the bat instinctively kept his silence. And the Boy-Who-Lived did not notice the sound of a bat dropping to the ground at all, nor the sound of a bat crawling its way to get nearer to him, maybe due to his own pain and fatigue.

In complete amazement, the bat watched the boy as he oblivated the Dark Lord, and then transfigured his body into a steel ring.

Severus let out a sigh of relief.

-_You do have to give the boy credit for his creativity. A much better way to temporarily seal the Dark Lord than anything I can think of. PLUS, he did not use any nuclear weapon that would cause chain-reactions in the muggle world._

Severus now could allow himself to survey his surroundings beyond the Dark Lord and the Boy-Who-Lived. But before he could observe the altar for the revival ritual in any detail, he saw Lucius's head right beside him.

Severus felt a wave of nausea. Lucius was not really his friend, at least not the type of friend like Lily, but he had been the only one that he could trust slightly more than other Death Eaters and Slytherins. Plus, they had shared some secrets, and enjoyed some witty talks over expansive drinks.

Severus knew Harry would revive Lily and Albus for sure, and Lord Potter might even revive Eileen Snape if Severus really begged, but Lucius… if he hadn't made any horcruxes, his death would be for real. And since there were rumors that making horcruxes was ominous for one's offspring among purebloods, Lucius probably did not make any.

Severus did not know what he ought to do, but he remembered that the boy said something about keeping Granger's body at five degrees. Silently, Severus transformed back into human shape, and cast a wordless freezing charm on the head beside himself… plus several other heads that he did not resent too much.

Still debating within himself as what he should do with the Death Eaters' heads, Severus saw the Potter boy produce a gas filled weather balloon.

_-Oh, that's the sound. Good, a normal gas explosion would not cause a nuclear war. It can't even penetrate my shielding charm. _

Then Severus thought of the army of aurors that would come to investigate the graveyard. Needless to say, Mad-Eye and Bones would be among them. He began to have a headache. Not the kind of headache one has for the end of the world, but still quite some headache.

As the Boy-Who-Lived disappeared under the Cloak of Invisibility, and the balloon rose into the air, Severus knew he had about thirty seconds to decide what to do with all the heads.

Just then, Severus heard a hoarse voice beside him, his own voice: "Gather the heads, you idiot! Oh, collect Quirrell, he was possessed by the Dark Lord, who knows how much powerful magic can be gained from his brain. The boy will turn back an hour, and will change his clothes in the first floor boys' bathroom. The instructions and the stone will be in his pouch."

Severus instinctively gathered the frozen heads plus some other parts from various bodies with a wave of his wand, and stuffed them into his own pouch. With some amazement, Severus saw heads identical to those he had gathered flew out from somewhere beside him, and landed at where they had been. And a pouch identical to that of the Potter boy's was handed to him as well as the Stone.

"The Stone can make transfiguration permanent." Severus heard himself. "You know what to do!"

Of course, Severus knew what to do. He would follow the boy, turn back an hour, follow him to the bathroom, swap his pouch and the Stone, do whatever he needed to do within the hour, then come back and remind himself. After that, he would need to get back to the castle quickly again, and pretend to be someone who had just woken up from the nightmarish hallucination.

Notes:

1\. According to canon, Parseltongue can be learnt, understood, and even spoken by people who are not Parselmouth by birth. Albus Dumbledore was able to understand that language in Book 6, and Ron Weasley was able to speak it in Book 7 (at least, good enough to open the Chamber of Secrets). Therefore, I assume, with reasonable intelligence and absolute necessity as Death Eater, then a spy against Dark Lord, Severus can understand Parseltongue to a certain degree, and can speak some very broken Parseltongue.

2\. I assume that Severus's patronus changed from a doe to a bat after he stopped loving Lily.

3\. I assume Severus's understanding of scientific knowledge and muggle society is only up to the level of an average adult muggle who received his education from public schools in a miserable neighborhood, aka, where Severus grew up. So he may know quite something about the nicknames of different drugs, and how to apply for unemployment benefits, but he does not know much science, nor how the muggle world operates outside the dilapidated ex-industrial town.

4\. I assume Severus does not know Harry well enough to understand that Harry would revive everyone someday.


	3. Chapter 3 Choice

Chapter 3.

June 17th, 1993

This was a very normal day for the muggle world. If you were to turn the TV to the news channel, you would only see the normal day-to-day business: squabbles between Democrats and Republicans on the Capitol Hill, continued crisis in the Middle East, civil war in some third-world country that most Americans could not even find on the map, etc.

However, for the wizarding world, this was the one year anniversary since the Boy-Who-Lived and the Girl-Who-Survived put a stopper on Death. – Well, more likely a stopper on wizarding death in the developed and semi-developed world, if you must ask for details.

It was not that the Boy-Who-Lived would reject a dying poor old witch from Afghanistan to be treated by the Stone, it was just that wizards and witches from those places did not trust the western magical community, and there were vivid stories circulating that you needed to sacrifice your soul to gain immortality. - Considering the fact that a lot of those witches and wizards were around when their motherlands were colonies, it was no surprise at all why they might think that. And for some unexplained reasons, witches and wizards from developed countries did not spend much time or energy to clear things up.

Muggleborn and half-blood witches and wizards had brought their loved non-magical ones to be treated in Hogwarts. The Boy-Who-Lived agreed to heal them on the condition that the muggles must be obliviated afterward, and no changes to their appearances would be made. For the doctors who treated the muggle patients previously, they were just unexplained miracles. Some muggle medical journals started to discuss the possibility that they had previously underestimated the self-cure rates of various types of cancer.

When the man, whom some muggle authorities might identify as John Wilson, got up from bed in his tiny government subsidized apartment in Oklahoma City, he thought with some irony that he needed to decide who to revive on this very joyful day for the wizarding world.

The brown-haired, brown-eyed, and flat-nosed man looked at himself in the dirty mirror, and gave a grimace. He was not so pleased with this appearance, nor this identity. Given the choice, he would rather assume the identity of an inconspicuous middle class man with a clean history, so that he could attract less attention from muggle police. Unfortunately, those types of people rarely became nameless corpses in a muggle police morgue. Because he did not want to spend too much energy on hiding this particular identity that Mad-Eye Moody might find out anyway, the man known to Wizarding Britain as Severus Snape settled for a middle aged homeless man who died from drug overdose on a street corner. And it was not that the muggle police absolutely could not find out who the dead drug addict was, they just didn't spend too much energy on the question. With some persuasion and wand movements, a muggle detective soon had John Wilson's social security number, a copy of his birth certificate, medical records, and criminal history ready. Severus raised his eyebrows at the minor mental disability part of the medical records, rolled his eyes on the series of petty thefts and drug offenses, paid the muggle detective handsomely, and oblivated him as a standard procedure. But later, Severus did find the social security checks and food stamps associated with this John Wilson guy rather convenient, for that saved him some trips to the nearest Gringotts bank in Las Vegas, where he could change his gold and silver into US dollars.

Severus drank his morning coffee, changed his eye color from brown to blue, adjusted his nose height and width of his cheekbones, and apparated to an isolated small farm near the Nevada desert. There, he was an upright thirty-four years old farmer named Michael Smith, who was home educated by his parents, and took over the farm after they passed away. It took Severus quite some energy to find such a suitable muggle who unfortunately died from a possible heart attack while working in the fields. Severus frowned at the foul smell of the corpse which had been there for at least three days, but the ease of assuming his identity was worth the price; this guy lived far away from any highway or muggle residence, had no living relatives, and wrote dairies.

Now, John Wilson, Michael Smith, and some other muggles all became small gems in a jewelry box on a wooden table. Severus laid down another box beside it, where there were some other precious stones as well. Finally, from his pouch, Severus pulled out two locks of hair, one red and one black.

Severus wanted to revive his mother and Lily most, but he was not that sure whether his first try on the ritual would be successful. If that failed, Severus was not sure whether it would be counted as "lost in a sacrificial ritual", and could never be regained. No, he could not risk these two lives.

Severus then looked at the box of muggles, whom he did not care much either way. But the problem was, according to the conversation between the Dark Lord and the Boy-Who-Lived, he needed to put some happy thought on hoping them to live rather than die. Severus knew that tricking his own mind to care about those muggles would definitely add more danger to the ritual, so they were out of the way.

As for his Death Eater colleagues, Severus could only name a few that he cared for even a little bit. He didn't like Macnair at all when that man was alive, but he did give the man credit for raising his wand toward the Dark Lord. Yet Severus was not sure that amount of respect was enough. Despite his loathing toward Sirius Black, Severus was on OK terms with Regulus Black before that boy died. What a pity, that boy was not among the stones at hand.

That left only Lucius, literally the most venomous snake known to the wizarding world. Ironically, Severus could trust that man slightly above others exactly for this reason.

When Severus first became a double-agent and a potions master in Hogwarts, he had desperately needed to improve his Parseltongue. One night, the bat animagus flew to the Forbidden Forest in hope of catching a magical snake, so that he could practice the language. When his echolocation system told him about a snake slithering near a small pond, Severus turned back into human form, and hissed to the snake: "_K…come b-back wis…with me._"

The beautiful blue snake with black strips froze there, as if in shock to see a Parselmouth.

Then Severus realized one moment too late that this was a Blue Krait, which was definitely not a species kept in the Forbidden Forest.

Just as Severus was pulling out his wand, the snake twisted and swirled. A second later, two Death Eaters were pointing their wands at each other.

Before either man could speak or utter a curse, a nearby frog chose this moment to croak, and both animagi had to fight down some very untimely saliva.

Somehow, this moment of awkwardness seemed to lessen the intensity in the air.

Lord Malfoy opened his mouth first, with much better Parseltongue than Severus: "_Sssso, we mussst both worship our Lord a great deal._"

To that statement, Severus could honestly answer: "_Yessss._"

Needless to say, Severus was quite aware of the difference between worshiping a powerful lord and being loyal to him. For a long time, Severus had suspected that Lord Malfoy only served the Dark Lord for the interests of House Malfoy, and there were other such speculators among the Death Eaters as well. If Lord Malfoy chose to ask about the loyal question to a random Death Eater in Parseltongue - given the other could speak Parseltongue as well - there was a good chance that the two Death Eaters would have to kill each other afterwards. Severus figured it would be good to let Lucius Malfoy consider him as one such opportunist.

The man with a snake head wand then hissed: "_Mussst not let otherssss know, in cassse they are jealousss._"

Severus consented to this immediately: "_Agreed._"

Severus speculated that "they" included the arrogant Dark Lord himself. Of course, Severus would not ask such a stupid question.

Then after quite some hisses, more fluent from Lord Malfoy, and less so from Severus, the two animagi agreed to keep whatever happened tonight as a secret, and would not reveal the other's animagus form or the Parseltongue ability to anyone unless the other one agreed in advance.

Lord Malfoy pondered the black-haired rising star in Death Eaters for a while, then said: "_Would be good if we exchange information ssometimesss._"

And that was exactly what the double-agent needed, but he could not appear too eager, so he answered vaguely: "_Maybe._" Then he suggested: "_Can ma…make potion for you, for paymentsss. Good po…potioneersss rare today._"

Severus hoped he had acted as if he was more interested in Malfoy's money than Malfoy's influence and "friendship".

-_Let him think that I am an arrogant young fool who did not quite know my real status. _

The white haired man stopped for a while, then replied: "_Need to be sssecret. Potionsss ssserve and only sserve their purpossse_."

"_Of courssse_." Severus answered.

Afterwards, Severus had made some interesting potions with dubious legal status for Lucius in exchange for handsome payments. Of course, Severus had to say in Parseltongue that the potions would do and only do whatever they were supposed to do each time. And, acting as if he was somewhat reluctant in the beginning but soon found out how useful this could be, Severus exchanged some not-so-important information and favors with Lord Malfoy. The vague alliance and "friendship" did not get a chance to really develop before the Dark Lord disappeared. In the peaceful years, their "friendship" consisted of mostly potion making for money and occasional small talks, since neither had much useful information for the other.

However, Severus had to admit the alliance did bring him certain benefits. At least, Malfoy house elves made amazing wines and "Cuisses de Grenouille", or so Lord Malfoy would call the French dish. Severus would simply call it frog legs.

During the whole period of this "friendship", Severus did not forget for a single second that you could tell lies with entirely true statements, since he himself was a master of that art. But still, the fact that you could not tell outright lies in Parseltongue did make Lucius slightly more trustworthy than the other Slytherins. Plus, Lucius's son, Draco, was doing some serious jobs in redeeming Slytherin House, which was something Severus desired but could never accomplish himself.

Severus heaved a sigh, and picked up a white stone with blue stripes.


	4. Chapter 4 Unexpected Result

Chapter 4.

June 17th, 1993

Lord Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres, accompanied by Mad-Eye Moody and an auror trio, grew more and more tired as the Stop-Death Day - or Potter-Granger Day - International Celebration Convention went on. As far as Harry could tell, so was Lady Hermione Granger, who was currently surrounded by three Ministers of Magic from three countries and three body guards.

Eyeing the watchful auror trio behind Hermione as well as Madam Bones who was not too far away from Hermione, the Boy-Who-Live sighed inward. When he came up with the "Hermione defeated Voldemort" story in a haste, and rushed to save every dying wizard with the Stone, he did not quite foresee this. For all that he had been the Boy-Who-Lived ever since the fateful Halloween night, he had never been a subject of sudden assaults by adult wizards besides his mortal enemy, Lord Voldemort. He thought, at that time, since Lord Voldemort was sealed, and Hermione was protected by the powers of a troll and a unicorn, the Girl-Who-Revived should be at least safe.

Unfortunately, a lot of wizards, groups, and nations apparently wanted the power of the Stone to be controlled by themselves.

There had been people claiming to be Master Flammel's decedents, therefore holding legal rights over the Stone. The Irish Ministry of Magic had claimed that the Stone was made by none other than Merlin, and Merlin was born in Ireland (which all British wizards fiercely contested), so that the Stone should belong to Irish people. Goblins showed a contract from the fourteenth century between Master Flammel and goblins, claiming that part of the Stone was made by goblins (which Harry suspected to be a plot by Perenelle to pretend to have made the Stone); therefore, after his death, the Stone should belong to goblins.

Those kinds of laughable attempts were the ones Madam Bones could easily defeat. But then there were ones much harder to fight.

Russian Council of Magic, Chinese Magical Standing Committee, Brazilian Ministry of Magic, and magical authorities from many other countries claimed that the Stone was a treasure of the entire wizarding world, therefore should be studied by magic masters all over the world when it was not in use. Department of Magic of the United States of America, Wizarding Collation of Commonwealth Nations, and European Confederation of Wizards fiercely contested that idea, claiming that British wizards had already been very generous in sharing the service of the Stone, and should not be pressed to share the secrets of the Stone with anyone or any country. However, these "allies" also discretely expressed their particular interest in sending their top magical researchers to "guard" the Stone.

If this happened when Harry still believed in sharing knowledge, peer reviewed journals, and citations, he would probably agree to form an international research group to study the Stone and tried to mass-produce it. However, he knew now that some knowledge could be dangerous, and one needed to guard those secrets. Therefore, Madam Bones firmly refused all such requests.

The problem was, Madam Bones was not Albus Dumbledore, the most powerful wizard in the world. At least, when Dumbledore said no, no SANE wizards would challenge his judgement that certain knowledge was dangerous, and few would dare to challenge violently. When it came to Madam Bones, who was never on the same level as Dumbledore or Voldemort, even some more intellectually competent wizards might challenge her judgement. Harry had wanted to tell the world that it was his judgement, but that idea was firmly denied by Hermione, Mad-Eye, and Madam Bones.

To the lack of raw power and credibility problem, the German Ministry of Magic secretly proposed a "solution". Gellert Grindelwald, the former dark lord whom Dumbledore defeated, who was also currently the most powerful and knowledgeable wizard in the world, agreed to take an Unbreakable Vow of any contents that would satisfy British Ministry of Magic, Boy-Who-Lived, and Girl-Who-Revived, so that he could help to guard the Stone, and to rescue Dumbledore from Time. In order to gain their trust, the Germans even revealed that Grindelwald and Dumbledore had been secret lovers when they were young. Madam Bones verified the affair herself; and Mad-Eye, who knew Dumbledore for more than a hundred years, reluctantly labeled it as a "youthful foolishness by Albus". No matter whether the former dark lord who conquered half of Europe and used muggles in concentration camps as sacrifices to keep himself invincible had some hidden agenda or not, Harry did not think adding Lord Grindelwald to the equation would really prevent the world from being destroyed.

Sometimes, Harry was surprised that a magical world war had not started already, and magical authorities from major countries all over the world exercised amazing self-constraint in keeping all the quarrels behind closed doors. On the surface, it was still all flowers, smiles and handshakes. Maybe the magical world did learn something from their practices of keeping important secrets to themselves, and hiding magic out of the eyes of most muggles. Harry had no idea how long this peace could last, but he knew that if he stopped providing magical healing to the world today, the wizarding world war would not even wait until tomorrow to get started.

However, not every powerful wizard or witch or wizarding groups desiring the Stone was that discrete or peaceful. There were rumors that the Girl-Who-Revived absorbed some key ingredients of the Stone in her resurrection. It was a known fact that the ancient wards of Hogwarts were very hard to challenge, but an underage girl in Hogwarts uniform was a much easier target. Until this day, Hermione had went through at least 11 kidnaps. Fortunately, in all those attempts, the attackers had been overpowered by armies of powerful masters from all over the world within seconds, as if they were waiting for such events, so they could be on the good books of Girl-Who-Revived. And Harry was not sure if some of those "saviors" plotted the whole episode themselves. Unfortunately, in the third attack or so, Hermione had been seen in public to heal miraculously fast. This just fueled the rumor like wild fire.

Harry initially wanted to spread the rumor that HE had absorbed the essence, but soon stopped himself there, because he literally could not take ANY risk for the safety of the world.

What made things worse was the fact that both Harry and Hermione's parents became targets for kidnaps. The Death Eaters did not attack the families of the Order after Dumbledore refused to ransom his brother, and Narcissa Malfoy was allegedly burnt dead alive in her bedroom. That was, of course, before Harry screwed everything up by giving up all his money and going in debt to save Hermione (though Harry got his money back later), and by giving back Draco his mother. Even if this very day, Harry could bring himself to watch his family and friends die (who Harry would resurrect later, of course), and torture the family and friends of his enemies to death in public (who Harry would resurrect later as well), it still would not work. Because previously, the Order of Phoenix was fighting a SANE Dark Lord who could REALLY control all his servants, and that was too high a standard for the random dark wizards or witches Harry faced nowadays.

The time and location of Professor Verres-Evans's lectures were public knowledge to all students in Oxford, and Dr. and Dr. Granger had advertised their business in a number of local newspapers. Previously, whatever powerful wards set up by Albus Dumbledore could not stop Lord Voldemort from finding Harry's home in a Yellow Page. Nowadays, Albus Dumbledore was no longer there to help, and there were plenty wizards who knew how to find out information in the muggle way. Therefore, both Harry and Hermione's parents had to leave their previously beloved professions and went into hiding.

Hermione's parents were both squibs, so they could use certain magical artifacts and do some menial work in the magical world. Dr. and Dr. Granger were so happy to have their only daughter back that they did not complain a single word about leaving their lucrative dental business, and became caretakers of Hogwarts.

Things were really bad for the Verres couple. Hogwarts was an OK place for a squib such as Mom, but there was a death trap almost in every corner for Michael Verres-Evans. Actually, this was no surprise at all, since Hogwarts was built in an era where wizards were persecuted by the muggles. Headmistress Minerva McGonagall had tried to make Hogwarts more muggle friendly, but there were limited things that she could do. For example, normally, the corridors in Hogwarts would not transform when someone was in or near it by some observation effect, but in the case for the ex-Oxford professor, the corridor would transform regardless, and could possibly crush him between two stone walls, maybe because the observation by a muggle did not count. And that's probably why when muggle parents are brought to Hogwarts, they were only allowed in a limited space. So Mom and Dad could not live in Hogwarts like the Grangers did. Even in their current hiding house, Dad could not find the house door after he stretched his legs in the garden. Mom and Dad loved Harry too much to complain, but Harry could see that a life of confinement did not suit them at all. Mom missed shopping and gossips in the neighborhood; and Dad, even if Harry could buy all the scientific journals and books for him, Dad still missed his research lab, his graduate students, and especially, his freedom.

These were complications that Harry did not foresee at all.

Sometimes, Harry did miss Lord Voldemort as an enemy. At least, the Dark Lord was sane, and he would do anything he could to prevent the world from being destroyed. As for the current ones, none of them was as powerful or as clever as Voldemort, but they had no idea what kind of danger they were creating. This was the time that Harry found chaos might be too dangerous for even him to deal with.

Harry continued to look around, and saw Draco was accompanied by a watchful Narcissa Malfoy and three body guards. The body guards were not aurors, but hired hit wizards who had taken Unbreakable Vows to protect their employer with all their might. As for the reason of their existence, of course, it was Harry. The fact that Harry returned Draco's mother back to him showed that Harry cared enough for him, and that amount of care was enough for getting Draco into danger after the second attempt to kidnap Hermione failed in August, 1992. Harry pondered if he should proclaim Draco as his enemy in public so he could keep Draco safe, but soon decided that might not fool the more shrewd enemies. So he had no choice but to keep Draco as his ally and friend, for he could not abandon Draco after already getting him into trouble in the first place. As for what would happen after Draco turned eighteen and remembered how Harry killed his father, well, for all Harry knew, if it were not for some wise political advises from Draco, he might had taken some quite stupid steps and caused a wizarding war already.

With some string-pulling, Draco had taken the OWLS two weeks ago together with the fifth year students, and he would formally become Lord Malfoy when the OWLS grades were out. Even the soon-to-be Lord Malfoy looked tired. For all the Malfoy trainings Draco got (which tragically ended last year around this time by Harry), the thirteen year old blond was possibly semi-ready for Wizengamot, but he was not prepared to play the game on the international level, especially, NOT on the level where he needed to help Harry stop a wizarding world war from happening.

Harry's inner Hufflepuff said: _And that, is what you did to your friends and friends' family._

_Remember the multiplications?_ The inner Ravenclaw said. _Whatever sufferings endured by a couple of third year students and their families are several orders of magnitudes lower than the happiness of hundreds of wizards and witches who are saved every day, not to mention they have friends and families as well._

This time the inner Slytherin chose to back up Hufflepuff from another angle: _Are you sure your friends and friends' family's sufferings are not in vain? And the witches and wizards we saved would really enjoy their lives for longer than, say, a few more days? Maybe our choice to save them would lead to a wizarding world war, where some stupid muggleborn would transfigure enough antimatter to eliminate everyone on earth. Probably Perenelle, whom you accused of killing more people than anyone, did not use the Stone to save everyone for exactly this reason. Maybe she actually delayed the world's destruction until you screwed things up with all your good intentions. _

Before Harry could blame himself further, he remembered the stars, and he remembered all the scientists who looked upward and forward. Fire could kill people, but if ancient _Homo erectus_ were too afraid to use fire, human brains would not evolve to what they are now, and there would not be any species that could understand themselves as _Homo sapiens_. Lightening could kill people and people were afraid of it for thousands of years, but without electricity which is what lightening is all about, there would not be the Second Industrial Revolution. And without the usage of electricity, Harry speculated that there would be several billion less people on earth, for there was no way that the agriculture productivity in the pre-Second Industrial Revolution era could feed approximately 5.6 billion people currently on earth. As for nuclear energy that the Dark Lord worried so much, Harry knew there were nuclear weapons, and there was the disaster in Chernobyl, but nuclear fusion might be the only way to solve the energy crisis once the world's oil got depleted, and it might be the best way to go to the stars without magic. Without taking risks, we human beings could not move forward. The Stone was probably something like fire, electricity, or nuclear energy, we just needed to be careful NOT to have ourselves destroyed before we could master it.

There, Harry turned his attention back to his PR campaign, so that one day, he would be in a better position to optimize the world.


	5. Chapter 5 The First Revival

Chapter 5.

11:01 pm (Pacific Time), June 18th, 1993

Severus did not know whether the Dark Lord chose approximately this time of day for the recreation of his own body for a reason or not, but he decided to go safe. And since even the Dark Lord would rather prefer his true body for the resurrection of Granger, Severus undid all magical and non-magical concealments, and revealed his black hair, black eyes, and his signature oversized nose.

Beside the Smith family graveyard in their family farm, now laid an altar that Severus created. And upon that altar, there was a white stone with blue stripes. Severus pointed his wand, and said: "Finite Incantatem."

The stone became Lucius' head, preserved at five degree Celsius. The Death Eater's mask had fallen off when Lucius fell down and died, his white hair was cut short around his neck level by whatever magic the Boy-Who-Lived killed all the Death Eaters, and there were blood on his face and white hair.

Severus frowned a bit upon the blood.

-Well, that could be somebody else's blood, which would complicate the whole affair.

The black-haired man waved his wand, and got rid of all the blood. In this way, Lucius looked…more alive. Severus hoped this would help with the ritual. The Dark Lord did say some happy thought about that person being alive was important.

Severus drew in a breath, knowing that this was the most difficult ritual he had ever tried, and spoke: "Flesh, flesh, flesh so wisely hidden."

The obelisks began chanting.

_Apokatastethi, apokatastethi, apokatastethi to soma hou emoi (emoi)._

_Apokatastethi, apokatastethi, apokatastethi to soma hou emoi (emoi)._

Flesh and bone oozed out of the neck, creeping forward and solidifying.

As Severus watched the formation of Lucius' shoulder, arms, torso, and legs, he could feel massive magic was drew from the altar, the land, and the air around, and quite some was drew from him. It felt like the type of magic that you could use up and regain, so Severus tried his best to sustain. And Severus understood why the Potter boy had not tried to revive anyone to Severus' knowledge: it just took too much magic the boy did not have yet.

When the last toe was formed, the obelisks stopped chanting.

Severus surveyed the naked form of Lucius in moonlight, and saw a body that was every part as beautiful and perfect as people rumored Lord Malfoy to be, the skin was without blemish, the muscles were well-toned, even his hair grew back to the full length.

-Well, that's some happy thought I can use later.

Then Severus took a chunk of red glass out from his pocket, and laid it upon Lucius' form. Severus knew this might be one of the two places where things could go wrong, but he had no choice.

Back when he just took Potter's pouch, he knew for sure that the Stone was a key item for resurrection. He needed to duplicate the power of the Stone, somehow. He knew he needed a way to cheat, so he pointed his ward to the Stone and said: "Gemino."

An identical looking red glass appeared beside the original one.

Severus knew that items created by the doubling charm would decay over time, and any magical ability of the original item would decay much faster, but since the Stone could make transfiguration permanent… Severus put the original Stone on the fake one, and let it stay there for a minute.

So far as Severus had tested the fake Stone, it seemed to be capable of make transfiguration sustained for at least a year, and this capability could be renewed every ten minutes or so. Severus had transfigured the ear shape of a dog, and the fur color of a cat. Both animals seemed to be fine until this day. But recently, the renewal time of the duplicated stone seemed to get longer, and that was what made Severus really worry.

-Well, if I want to revive Lily, I can just go to the Boy-Who-Lived and ask. And since the boy would prefer Granger had her clothes on…

Severus waved his wand. Lucius' body was lifted to the air and surrounded by dead leaves. A moment later, Lucius was clothed in a Death Eater robe and let down.

Severus frowned a bit at the Death Eater robe, and decided that was not good for any happy thought, so he changed that to an expensive looking formal robe with a wave of wand.

-That looks better now. Then, there is the second difficult part. Use the happy thought of Lucius being alive to fuel a patronus.

Severus tried to gather all his good memories with Lucius, of the delicious frog legs made by Malfoy house elves, of all the witty talks by the fire, of the clicking gold he got from Lucius – no, that's not the right kind of happy memory, especially not the discussions on the interesting effects of certain potions, or the theories of some spells with dubious legal status.

Severus cleared his mind, and tried again.

-The witty talks by the fire over expensive wine, the laugh they had after they successfully set up a trap and got Bellatrix Black into some awkward trouble…

CRAP.

Severus decided to skip the "witty talks" part of his memory.

Then Severus remembered the few moments that Lucius did not appear all that witty or shrewd: the aristocratic patriarch who awkwardly asked if there was any potion that could stop a baby from throwing up the milk after Narcissa "died", the father who explained to his allies why he skipped an important Wizengamot vote to be with his injured son, and the strange man who formed alliance with the Boy-Who-Lived and seemingly helped his son redeem Slytherin…

Severus put all those memory into his magic, and shouted: "Expecto Patronum!"

A bright bat flew out of Severus' wand tip and plunged into Lucius' body.

Nothing happened.

-OK, life and happy thought about a living Lucius.

Severus drew in a breath, and tried again: the awkward aristocratic single father, the man who cared more about his son than a Wizengamot vote, the politician who conceded to his former enemies and helped Draco to redeem Slytherin, the wave of nausea he felt when he saw Lucius' head lying on the ground, the way Draco collapsed and yelled: "Father, NO! Don't die!"

Severus wasn't too sure about the last two parts of his memory, but he tried anyway: "Lucius, come back from death! Expecto Patronum!"

This time, Severus put some of his life into his spell, and saw a round ball much brighter than any patronus he had produced before jumped out of his wand, and entered Lucius' body.

Severus felt a lit bit of his life and magic was lost to that seemingly non-corporeal patronus, and saw Lucius started breathing.

-Errr, what happened to my patronus? Have I just sacrificed its corporeal form? And why is it so bright? Is that some sacrifice as well? Oh, damn Lucius, you'd better be really grateful!

Now Severus looked at the breathing white-haired man, knew he had accomplished something great, and knew maybe this was his moment to walk the walks of great wizards.

Severus smiled to himself, and began to throw all the diagnostic spells he knew on Lucius. All the spells told him that the wizard lying on the altar was healthy in body albeit weak in magic.

-Poor Lucius, I guess I should thank you for your great service to the safety of the world. Oh, well, maybe I should use the memory of the Unbreakable Vow. That's definitely a happy memory for the entire world.

Severus smirked, pointed his wand, and said, "Enervate."


	6. Chapter 6 Lucius Malofy

Chapter 6.

11:25 pm, June 18th, 1993

Lucius Malfoy woke up in a jolt. He opened his eyes, and saw a smirking Severus Snape towering over him. He looked around haltingly at the obelisks and farmland graveyard.

Lucius remembered being forced to be the binder of the Unbreakable Vow, and pointing his wand at the Boy-Who-Lived, whom the Dark Lord seriously believed might destroy the world. Then the Dark Lord and the Potter boy had had quite an interesting conversation in Parseltongue, where apparently none of them considered the possibility that someone else might understand that language as well.

If Lucius did not feel so upset about losing much of his magic, he might have some sharp remarks on the arrogance of both the Potter boy and the Dark Lord.

But as Lucius had listened to the hisses, he had found that what costed most of his magic was not some bad joke on the Dark Lord's part. Both natural Parselmouths had honestly believed that Harry Potter might really bring an end to this world, possibly using muggle science.

Lucius knew something about muggle science, like the book that Harry Potter lent Draco with pictures of muggles on the moon. When the news that Draco almost died from the blood-cooling charm arrived, Lucius almost went mad. He remembered the horror when he came home and found all his house elves stunned and oblivated, as he ran and called for Narcissa, as he found nothing but burning marks in their bedroom. If it were not for the crying Draco in the cradle, he might have went mad that day. It was like that nightmare all over again. But his boy was OK, and was at home.

However, Lucius did need to know what happened at Hogwarts. And his boy, who once told him everything, refused to really talk. He knew this was a sign of growing up, but he could not risk losing Draco and not knowing. With broken heart, he administered Draco three drops of Veritaserum. And Draco talked, and talked. Compared to what Draco had said, the ravings of lunatics in St. Mungos made much more sense. How could muggles become more powerful than wizards? How could they arrive at the Moon where no wizard had ever landed, using "science"? And blood - according to some weird muggle theory, there was no difference between a pureblood and a muggleborn? All because of how many wizarding children squib couples had? How could that be true? It was a widely known fact that muggleborn couples littered more squibs. And as for squibs giving birth to wizarding kids, who knew whether the filthy female squibs had cheated on their useless squib husbands? Stupid wizards who did not mind producing bastards were still much better than squibs. When Lucius pointed those out to his son, Draco was quite shocked. Lucius sighed: a clever boy as Draco was, he was still too young and gullible, and he did not fully understand the adults' world yet. Yet, although the flaw in the Boy-Who-Lived's blood theory brought Lucius some comfort, the whole moon thing still seemed to be true.

Lucius glanced at the moon uncomfortably.

And then the Boy-Who-Lived threatened the Dark Lord with a massive explosion that could kill everyone.

Lucius was confused, but guessed it might have some moon thing in it. The pictures on that devilish book Harry used to seduce Draco away from him did show huge fire coming from the end of a rocket…

And Lucius' world swirled and he thought he saw his own headless body fell to the ground.

Then everything went dark.

Dark until this moment.

Lucius pushed himself up to a seating position, one hand instinctively went to check his neck, the other fumbled for his wand and failed. As he looked around, and saw himself on an altar that looked quite similar to what his master had created, and it was in a graveyard much smaller than the place he lost consciousness, and there was also the smirking black-haired man, whom Lucius trusted slightly above average. Lucius had no choice but to ask: "Severus, my friend, what happened?"

Severus answered in his broken Parseltongue: "_You d-died, and I rev...revived you._"

Just as Lucius' brain went blank with the shocking news, Severus waved his wand, and said: "Tempus."

"11:26 pm, June 18th, 1993" appeared in front of Lucius.

Lucius wanted to cast the time revealing charm himself to verify, but found that the once simple charm that he could cast without a wand or a word when he was half asleep failed on him. He had to concentrate and cast again: "Tempus."

"11:26 pm, June 18th, 1993" popped up again.

Lucius swallowed down the hard news, and then realized something worse than his own death: Draco had been an orphan for more than a year. Mr. Macnair, Draco's godfather, was torn into pieces in his open rebellion against the Dark Lord. And Mr. Avery, Draco's fallback godfather...was probably dead as well. And his boy had been a toy for Lord Potter to try his brainwash techniques for more than a year now, that was, if he was lucky. Otherwise…

Lucius did not really want to think what might have happened otherwise.

As if reading Lucius' mind through his perfect occlumency barrier, the towering black-haired wizard hissed: "_No v-worry. Nar-cisssa isss alive, with Draco now._"

Lucius' mind went blank again.

As Severus began to recount the story on Narcissa from the _Daily Prophet_ in human language, rejoice and relief almost overwhelmed Lucius. Lucius knew that Narcissa's death was Dumbledore's fault as well as his own. He had brought danger home, he had blindly trusted the ancient wards in Malfoy manor, and he had failed to protect Narcissa. He had left the burning marks in their bedroom as a reminder of both his hatred towards Dumbledore and of his own stupidity. Now knowing that Narcissa was obliviated, and was sent to live in Australia as a muggle, though his brain could generate hundreds of ways how this could be used against House Malfoy, Lucius still could not suppress his gratitude towards Dumbledore and the Boy-Who-Lived.

Then there come another big question: why did Severus revive him? True, Severus had been his ally, and they probably trusted each other slightly more than average. But why such trouble? Any similar reason as why the Dark Lord revived the Granger girl? Prophecy or something?

Even though he probably would not get a true answer, Lucius had to ask: "Severus, my dearest friend, why did you resurrect me?"

Lucius deliberately asked in human language, so that his savior with a wand could choose freely whether to answer it in truth or not.

To his shock, Severus answered in Parseltongue: "_P…Pl…Prefer you to li-live than die._"

Lucius had no idea Severus treasured their "friendship" so much, or at least, to the extent that the black-haired man could honestly say that he preferred Lucius alive. Whatever the other man's hidden motives were, Lucius knew he needed to be really grateful. Plus, the other wizard was much stronger than he was now, and had a wand at hand.

Lucius knew the ways to thank someone who had just saved your life from the brim of death, but he had no idea how to thank a possible true friend who revived you more than a year after you died. And since he had been dead for quite some time, Lucius guessed he no longer had a lot of resources and powers he once wielded.

-_True friendship, is that what Severus desired? I guess I can offer him that, at least to the extent of my friendship with Walden Macnair. But friendship alone seems too empty and vague. This half-blood's eyes did light up when he saw gold. That I think I still have some. And he may desire glory and fame, I have heard him talked about Order of Merlin once or twice. Giving him an Order of Merlin was no trouble at all before I died, but now it may require some serious plotting. Well, perhaps only money for now, and an Order of Merlin, First Class later as a surprised gift._

Lucius was no fool. He knew he had dangerous enemies, and had planned for Draco accordingly. He had bought properties in other parts of the world, and had set up some secret vaults in Gringotts' oversea branches. Some of the Malfoy wealth would be available to Draco upon Lucius' death, some would only be known to Draco as he came of age, and some would go to Draco's vault in a monthly basis. Lucius quickly recounted the contents of the secret vaults that Draco didn't know yet, and decided the Mexico City one, which had one hundred thousand galleons, sounded too much like an insult to people in Dumbledore's faction (which Severus had apparently convinced the Boy-Who-Lived that he was in), and the Rome one, which contained something he did not want Severus to know. So, the Tokyo vault.

Lucius made sure shock and gratitude was shown on his face and eyes, and hissed: "_Sseveruss, there iss no word that I can desscribe my gratitude toward you. You are my ssavior and true friend. Noble and Most Ancient House or not, House Malfoy recognizess itss life debt to you. I know money iss nothing compared to what you have done, but that can certainly make life a little bit eassier. I have a ssecret vault in Gringottss, in Tokyo, two hundred and fifty thousand galleonss in it, available to anyone with vault number and proper passsword. The vault number iss 122, and the passsword iss,_" Lucius paused, and then continued, "_Cor meum esst intra portass tuass, Draco Meum._"

The black-haired wizard smirked upon hearing the vault part, then raised his brow slightly as he heard the probably too sentimental password and Draco's name.

-_Well, how can a half-blood possibly know what lies in the "my heart stays with you" statement?_


	7. Chapter 7 The Screw-Ups

Chapter 7.

6:35 am, June 19th, 1993

Severus' smug mood for completing a difficult ritual did not even last for 12 hours.

Severus had thought that he'd been quite prepared. He knew that he'd be bombarded with questions if the ritual was successful, so he had the past year's Daily Prophets ready at hand to save himself some time. And he had tentative plans on what to do with a live Lucius - something like giving Lucius one of his false identities as a muggleborn wizard from the United States. Lucius could be one of the opportunistic suitors surrounding Narcissa, and later became Draco's stepfather. If the blood purist was not pleased with that identity, then Lucius should go and figure something out himself. Lucius did offer him quite some money last night, as he had expected, but he already had plenty of gold and silver in his backpack, thanks to the original Stone. Severus praised himself for acting as if he still needed Malfoy gold.

But as usual, Severus was too slow on the uptake, and didn't think enough.

When Severus woke up this morning, Lucius was still by the wooden table in the living room, and buried in the newspapers. The blond man looked a bit pale, and there were dark circles below his blue-grey eyes. Lucius let the newspaper slide from between his fingers, and looked at Severus as he walked in.

Severus remembered some news on the paper, and inwardly smirked.

-_Well, Lord Malfoy's dark history has been revealed to the public, and Draco has had to pay hefty fines and restitutions to the families of his victims. And if it were not for the Potter boy, House Malfoy may no longer be a Noble and Most Ancient House anymore. All serve good for what the blue snake deserves. Oh, I need to remind him to be quiet on how he died._

Severus raised his hand, and a bag of bagels flew toward him from the pantry. As the black-haired man walked towards the toaster on the kitchen table, Lucius spoke: "Good morning, my dear Severus."

Severus half-mindedly greeted back, and glanced at the plastic bag in his hand. He shouldn't be preparing breakfast for the aristocrat like a house elf. Instead, he should teach Lucius how to use the toaster.

Just as Severus' imagination took him to the amusing scene of a cooking Lucius, the aristocrat asked quite seriously: "Am I correct in understanding that we do not have a wizarding war going on now?"

That question got Severus' attention. He hadn't been reading between the lines of the _Daily Prophet _for quite a while, since he began preparing for the ritual. Trying to think very fast on what he did read, he replied: "No, unless you count those places people rarely hear of."

Lucius looked as if Severus had just kissed James Potter. This got Severus quite annoyed, as if he had missed something: "Why? The whole wizarding world seemed to be quite grateful toward the Boy-Who-Lived and the Girl-Who-Revived."

The white-haired politician spoke slowly and with real amazement: "You meant that the BOY and the GIRL told the world that there is a Stone that can mass produce immortality and youth a year ago, yet Hogwarts is still standing there this very day."

Then it dawned on Severus.

-_Of course, everyone would want the Stone all for themselves! A selfish bastard like myself only duplicated it instead of stealing it, because I knew the potential danger of it from observing the powerful ritual performed by the Dark Lord, and knew the danger the Potter boy could create if things around him went wrong. Back when I was in such a hurry to leave Hogwarts, I just thought if the knowledge of the Stone is said to be dangerous, then most wizards with some real intelligence would simply give up. God damn it, I have been shielded by Albus for too long! I had forgotten that there's no Albus Dumbledore in Britain now - the boy may become the Light Lord someday, but all he has now is POTENTIAL. Who would believe a boy who has yet to turn thirteen? Who would believe Madam Bones, who has never walked the walks; or Mad-Eye, who has walked the walks but failed? Plus, young kids with potential in pursuit of power die all the time, why would the Boy-Who-Lived be an exception? So the current dark wizards all over the world did not even need to worry too much for retribution later._

-_Except there is a PROPHECY that they don't know of: if things around that boy go wrong, he may destroy the world!_

Severus froze there, and realized what he had failed to do: he was supposed to be the Death Eater in the Order of Phoenix. He was supposed to think like a real dark wizard, and to predict what other dark wizards might do. But with the Dark Lord gone, and most Death Eaters beheaded, he had thought Britain would be a much safer place. He completely forgot that Britain was only a small corner of the world, and the world was in no lack of wizards much darker and crazier than the Death Eaters. The Boy-Who-Lived, for all his dark potentials, was still a naive child. And Mad-Eye, for all his paranoid "Constant Vigilance" slogans, was indeed a good man who had unfortunately been shielded by Albus for too long. So, they rushed to do good things. Well, Mad-Eye might have something prepared to trap the dark wizards who dared to attack Hogwarts, but even Albus, with all his knowledge on ancient lore and all his power as Headmaster of Hogwarts, failed to prevent the Dark Lord from entering Hogwarts and stealing the Stone.

Now to think of it, Severus was quite surprised that the world had not ended yet.

The two ex-Death Eaters looked at each other. They did not even need Parseltongue to communicate their horrors.

Lucius slowly said: "From the _Daily Prophet_, it seems that Draco is in Potter's good book. I need to communicate with him very soon."

-_Yes, that is quite a reasonable request. Maybe I should contact Harry Potter…_

-_CRAP!_

Severus suddenly realized another thing he had done. Due to his stupidity and blindness in the pursuit of power, he had just endangered wizarding Britain and the world even further.

In the eyes of the rest of the world, Wizarding Britain had already been a vulnerable child with too much wealth and treasure. And now on top of that, Severus had just resurrected someone! When the revival was carried out by the Dark Lord, the most powerful dark wizard in the world, who subsequently disappeared again, everybody would assume it involved some very powerful, dark, and dangerous rituals, and few dared even trying to know. But Severus Snape was only a moderately powerful and intelligent wizard, and the ritual was not all that dark or dangerous. Bloody anyone would want that power!

Severus glanced at the living example of his stupidity, and considered destroying the evidence, but found himself quite reluctant to do that.

-_Well, the ritual does require someone to want the other to live, and that desire has to be true._

Severus doubted if he had sacrificed the will to kill Lucius as well as his corporeal patronus.

The snake animagus seemed a little wary upon Severus' glance, and he quickly changed the theme: "Well, we should thoroughly plan before we take action. On the other hand, do you have newspapers from other countries by any chance? It seems that the Boy-Who-Lived now controls the_ Daily Prophet_, and he hides things quite differently from how it has been done before."

That partially explained why Severus hadn't noticed anything earlier. Still, it exemplified his stupidity and ignorance in not even thinking of obtaining a US wizarding newspaper, for all that he had lived in the United States and Canada for the past year!

The sneaky snake seemed to have guessed at Severus' ignorance, and changed the subject again: "Severus, do you have coffee? I could really use some."

Completely speechless in dawning horror and remorse, Severus threw the bag of untoasted bagels to Lucius, and began making coffee.

-_At least coffee and bagels will not kill you or endanger the world. That is, unless you put coffee into Harry Potter's mouth, and see what he would do in the caffeine-induced sharpness._

In the meanwhile, the white-haired aristocrat absentmindedly opened the bag of bagels purchased from a discount shelf in Walmart, and began eating.

"Severus, I think there is something wrong in my stomach."

Severus rolled his eyes, and decided that if Lord Malfoy dared to complain a single word about the taste or texture of the bagels, he would destroy the living evidence anyway. But when Severus turned around, he saw that Lucius really was pale and in real pain.

Severus began to throw diagnostic spells onto Lucius, and quickly found the symptom to be the same experienced by the creative idiots who had tried free transfiguration on themselves.

And Severus realized what went wrong in the ritual: the duplicated Stone.

-_Of course, when brilliant young heroes come up with some clever way to cheat, they are always successful. And when it comes to the middle-aged ugly dark wizard with sociopathic tendencies, well, there is always some way that things go wrong._


	8. Chapter 8 Friendship of Slytherins

Chapter 8.

10:05 am, June 22nd, 1993

Severus' transfiguration skills were not as good as Minerva's, nor were his healing skills as good as Madam Pomfrey's, but he was indeed one of the school's transfiguration authorities and Potions Master. During his ten-year tenure in Hogwarts, he had dealt with plenty of "creative" students and even two or three "ingenious" defense professors, and none of them had died on his watch.

Now, Severus was quite worried that his perfect record might break.

Severus knew his quick fixes on the idiots who tried free transfiguration on themselves could last for up to twelve hours, more than enough time to get them to Madam Pomfrey and St. Mungos. But the problem was, those dim-wit cretins usually only tried free human transfiguration on _parts_ of their body. But for Lucius, every part below his neck was transfigured. Even if Severus put all his might into the quick fixes, and applied the duplicated Stone on Lucius for a minute afterwards, things would still go wrong within three to four hours. Afterwards, Severus would need at least one hour of rest to recharge himself.

What made things worse, the fake Stone was losing its power fast. Previously, the power of it could be renewed every ten minutes or so, now it was one hour and counting. Severus suspected that the renewal time would soon be more than four hours, in which case Lucius was definitely doomed.

Even now, when Severus still had time to rest, and the duplicated Stone was semi-working, Lucius had had a cardiatric arrest just two hours after Severus put the fake Stone on him, and Severus had to use his patronus to give Lucius another jump-start.

If Severus still wanted Lucius to live - which he unfortunately did - he needed to get Lucius back to Britain, fast.

The most inconspicuous way was apparition. You could apparate your way from North America to Hogwarts, if you were willing to apparate a couple dozen times, going from Alaska to Russia, from Siberia to Eastern Europe, and finally from France to the United Kingdom. However, taking a fragile Lucius in side-along apparition in such a long journey was obviously a bad idea.

Then Severus was left with two options: the international Floo network, which was controlled by magical governments all over the world; and international Gringotts portkey travelling, which was operated by the goblins. Lucius had said that if what he knew a year ago was still true today, as long as you were willing to pay enough galleons for a first-class portkey, the goblins couldn't care less about who was traveling, or whatever or whoever was in your suitcase.

Therefore, the current plan was that Lucius would enter Severus' suitcase, Severus would take the suitcase, apparate to Las Vegas, make sure Lucius was alright before entering Gringotts, buy a first-class portkey to London, and then apparate to Malfoy Manor.

From what Lucius gathered from the Daily Prophet, Malfoy Manor must have been on high security mode for quite some time, which meant Severus couldn't simply apparate or Floo there without prior permission from either Draco or Narcissa. And if what Lucius was guessing was true, Thief's Downfalls were much more common in Britain these days than before.

Therefore, Lucius had suggested that Severus sent a message to Draco, stating that Severus had a message from Lucius to deliver to him prior to the event that Draco became the next Lord Malfoy, which was technically true. Then, Severus could travel using his true identity.

In his total magical exhaustion and lack of sleep, Severus agreed.

As Severus was writing the letter to Draco with help from the ultimate Malfoy cheating guide, half-mindedly nodding to Lucius' endless praise for his son, some words suddenly caught his attention: "Severus, my brother, would you like to be Draco's godfather?"

Perhaps Severus had had too much coffee and too little sleep during the past two days, but he was no fool. "What do you mean? Macnair was Draco's godfather, if I remember correctly."

Severus almost let it slip that he had Macnair's thumb in his collections, but he closed his mouth in time.

-_Does Lucius want me to protect Draco? What an ungrateful bastard! Like saving Lucius' life a couple dozen times is not enough! On the other hand, Draco is redeeming Slytherin…_

Lucius then began a tirade about how Severus was indeed his family and his brother now, to which Severus just wanted to put a silencing charm on. And then, "_I will never betray you firsst_", in Parseltongue.

Severus was suddenly more awake.

-_Well, that's a statement that you can hardly expect from a Malfoy. And adding "firsst" to the end of it did make it more true. Maybe the pureblood is more grateful than I thought._

Severus decided to ignore the talking noises regardless. He was just too tired. He may consider Lucius' suggestion after he got some sleep.

But the white-haired man seemed to be quite determined to annoy his one savior. "Severus, this might sound rude to you, but I do have to ask. Is your father a muggle or a squib?"

Severus was too tired and annoyed to hex Lucius now, so he answered: "Muggle. I guess a half-blood is not good enough for Malfoy's godfather after all."

Lucius firmly denied the accusation, and began to explain what he learnt about the Boy-Who-Lived's theory about the inheritance of magic from feeding Draco with Veritaserum, that there was only a single "gene" that determined if someone was magical or not. Two pieces of the gene meant wizards; one piece meant squib; and zero meant muggle.

This oversimplified version of Mendel's pea experiment gave Severus a good laugh: "Oh Merlin, then I must be a squib for sure. And you, saved by a squib! On the other hand, I could be a bastard, which is a happy thought indeed."

-_Oh, shit. How did I manage to say the last part out loud?_

Severus glanced at the awkward looking blood purist who was busy apologizing, considered hexing him into oblivion, then gave up and dozed off.

Note:

According to canon, Severus Snape, Seamus Finnigan and Lord Voldemort's father were all muggles, not squibs. According to Pottermore, Minerva McGonagall's father was a muggle, and she had two brothers, both of them were wizards. And if Quirrellmort was telling the truth in Chapter 70 of HPMOR, at least he considered his father to be a muggle. If Harry's theory about blood was true or partially true, at least it is not canon compatible, or he has some serious explanations to do with the ultra-high mutation rate. Otherwise, it is possible that none of the half-bloods AND their wizarding parents realized that the non-magic folks in their family are squibs, which means their stupidity and ignorance are beyond my imagination.


	9. Chapter 9 Return of Father

Chapter 9.

9:29 am, June 24th, 1993

Draco Malfoy waited anxiously in the guest apparition room alongside with Mother.

The soon-to-be Lord Malfoy received a letter from Gringotts yesterday, stating that Severus Snape had an important message for him from Father, to be delivered upon the event that Draco came to magical majority and became Lord Malfoy.

This was indeed a thing Father would do, and all the secret marks on that letter were right.

Father was always prepared, even for his own death. After Father passed away, Draco received Father's will, one copy from his trusted lawyer and one copy from the goblins, in which Father left the majority of his properties to Draco, entrusted most businesses to professional managers, allocated money that would go to the Crabbes and Goyles on a monthly basis for them to continue their services to House Malfoy, made donations to St. Mungo's to ensure that all Malfoys would be treated in the best possible way, set up a fund for Hogwarts so that Draco would become a member of Hogwarts' Board of Governors after he graduated…

Draco wanted to cry each time he thought of Father's will, of how Father had planned for him. But he had lost more than eighty percent of what Father left him due to the heavy fines to the Ministry of Magic and restitutions to the victims of Father's crimes.

-_Who knows if Father did the things people accused him of or not? And since all Death Eaters in Azkaban have went crazy from ten years' exposure to Dementors, there is only one talking mouth now: Igor Karkaroff! Maybe Karkaroff committed some of those crimes himself, and he put them on Father. Or, maybe the victims' family bribed Karkaroff to put everything on Father, so that they can claim restitutions from the rich Malfoys, instead of the knutless Travers. _

Draco knew better than to argue with the relatives of the deceased. Instead, Mother and Draco set up a generous fund for the victims' families, and handed the fund management power to Mad-Eye Moody. He secretly hoped that the financial management job would tire out the old auror soon enough, so he would give fewer suspicious stares and try fewer legilimency attempts on Draco each time they came cross. But since youth was being mass produced in Hogwarts, this plot was highly unlikely to work. Of course, neither Mother nor Draco admitted knowing wrong-doing by Father that they knew of - which was true, since Father never mentioned any details - they just said they felt really sorry to the heavy losses of the families.

But losing all that money did not mean Draco and Mother were living in poverty. Father had managed Mother's dowry well over the years, and the value had grew more than ten folds. Draco suspected that Father had put some of the Malfoy wealth into Mother's dowry, so that if things went really wrong and all the Malfoy money got confiscated, Draco would still have something to rely on. Now Mother's dowry was legally returned to Mother, and the returns were more than enough for them to live a really comfortable life.

Additionally, there was money from undisclosed sources coming to Draco's personal vault each month. And Draco suspected there would be a lump sum of money becoming available to him upon his majority and his marriage.

Father really had everything planned.

Father had even arranged for Draco to receive a Firebolt as a present for his thirteenth birthday. When Draco received the fastest racing broomstick the day before he took his OWLS exams, he locked himself in his dorm and cried. In his pre-Hogwarts days, Draco had told Father that he wanted to become a seeker for Slytherin House, just as Father did when he was in Hogwarts. Draco had wanted to make Father proud. And Father had promised Draco the fastest racing broomstick if he became a seeker.

Draco didn't become a seeker, and Father wouldn't know that.

Father wouldn't know that Draco was no longer the child who loved Quidditch and dreamed to become a seeker. Draco needed to keep a close eye on Harry so that the Boy-Who-Lived wouldn't cause an instantaneous wizarding war in his naivety. Draco knew that Harry did not tell him all the secrets Harry shared with Hermione, and Father would not like that. However, a lot of times, Draco was simply too tired to care, all the international politics were more than enough for him.

Father wouldn't be happy if he knew Draco settled himself as the third person in the power structure. But if Harry and Hermione got married someday as everyone said they would, Draco wondered whether that would be counted as him serving the Lord and Lady of the Potter House, and therefore, second in command.

Draco cringed a bit on how disappointed Father would be if he knew Draco's condition, then directed his attention to the incoming messenger.

Draco knew Snape and Father were allies, but he didn't think they were close. Yet, there were a lot of things that Draco didn't know about Father, and it was possible that there was a chain-of-command, and all the people before Snape were dead. And to be honest, Draco held some resentments at Snape for just abandoning Slytherin like that.

Then, a popping sound came from behind the newly installed Thief's Downfall, and the former Head of Slytherin House appeared with no automatic anti-concealment alarms triggered.

The black-haired man looked worse than when he was Head of Slytherin. His hair was as greasy and unkempt as he had not stood in a shower or used a comb for at least a week, his dark eyes were like slow boiling fire, the dark circles below his eyes were quite obvious, his cheek was shallow, and his black robes were spotty, and there were heavy smells of potion coming from him. And the man had a grey suitcase in his left hand, which might contain something that Father wanted Draco to have.

Draco wondered if an extra powerful imperius curse wouldn't be washed off by the Thief's Downfall, or if the man was simply annoyed at getting interrupted in his potion experiments and needing to deliver some message for a dead ally.

Draco instinctively grabbed Father's wand tighter in his hands, and Snape eyed Draco as if in approval of Draco's reaction.

Mother stepped forward, and raised her right hand while holding her wand in her left: "Severus, what a delight to meet you!"

To Draco's slight relief, Snape put his wand into his left hand together with his suitcase, grabbed Mother's hand and made a hasty handshake. "Glad to meet you, too, Lady Malfoy."

The greasy man didn't show any particular interest in the beautiful and rich widow, simply turned to Draco, sizing him up and down for a bit, then said: "Glad to meet you, Mr. Malfoy."

Draco knew he was not Lord Malfoy yet, but that was why Snape was here, wasn't it? Draco smiled politely, and shook hands with the former Potions Master.

Before Mother or Draco could say any more courtesy words, Snape cut in and said: "I would like a place with more privacy for what we are about to converse."

Mother and Draco exchanged a brief glance, and showed Snape to a private study.

"Mr. Malfoy, It is my understanding that you would receive occlumency lessons before entering your magical majority." The man said without sitting down, as if in a hurry. "Not only up to the level that you can fool Veritaserum, but up to the level that you can block Alastor Moody."

Remembering all the "trainings" he got from Moody, Draco answered: "Yes."

And Mother said: "I guess I need to check lunch now. Severus, is there anything that you would like to try?"

Mother was an occlumens for sure, but she probably could not resist a powerful legilimens such as Moody or the Dark Lord, and that's probably one of the reasons why Father never talked of his Death Eater business with her.

Snape mumbled: "Anything would be fine."

After Mother left, Snape put his suitcase down, and casted spell after spell to the room. Some of the spells Draco had learnt from preparing for his OWLS, some Draco had seen Mr. Bester casting before occlumency lessons, and there were about half of them Draco had never heard of.

Snape turned and -

A red-hot blade took its aim toward Draco's mind, and cutting through his layers of occlumency barriers like cutting through shear butter. If it were not for Moody's frequent trials, Draco might lose the grip of his final barrier and reveal all the nights that he cried for Father. But this was way worse than anything Moody had tried, worse than anything Draco had experienced, Draco was barely able to stand.

The pain stopped.

Draco staggered, realizing that he was facing the second most powerful Death Eater, alone. If this man wanted to attack…

Snape raised an eyebrow and said: "Mad-Eye didn't test you hard enough, did he?"

Draco panted. He knew Snape should and would do this if he were going to talk about something really important, but doing THAT to -

Draco heard an unbelievably familiar sound from Snape's suitcase: "Severus, I can't feel my legs!"

Snape cursed and opened his suitcase. As Snape was running down the stairs of the suitcase, Draco could only see the back side of someone crawling on the floor of the study-sized room inside the suitcase. The long white hair, the neatly manicured yet powerful hands, the elegant feeling of the common robes from just being worn by that man, crawling in pain or not...

-_No, it can't be…_

After Snape threw a number of spells on the figure on the ground, the pain that man had been in seemed to cease. Seeing that man no longer in immediate danger, Draco let out a breath that he hadn't quite realized he had held.

Then the man on the ground raised his head, and turned toward Draco, panting, and breathed: "Draco, my boy, I am sorry to let you see me in such a state."

-_Father._

Draco could not believe his eyes; he could not believe his ears. Maybe, maybe Snape did something to him, maybe he didn't hold his mental barrier as he thought he did, or it was all a bad joke…

Snape spoke amidst casting healing charms: "You can verify his identity using your patronus."

In so many sleepless nights that Draco had sent his patronus to find Father, and only receiving sad looks. But this time, Draco's snake patronus happily lept and jumped to the man on the ground.

Draco ran down the stairs regardless of the possible dangers. He just wanted to hug the man on the floor, and never to leave his side.

As Draco reached the bottom of the suitcase, Snape had finished casting spells, and shoved a red glass into the hand of the white-haired man on the ground. Snape swayed a bit, and then lent a hand to Father to help him up. "Hopefully, the next hour will be safe. I'll leave it to you and your son. Call me immediately if anything goes wrong."

Draco watched as Father grabbed Snape's hand and climbed up. It was strange to see Father in such a weakened state, and needing other's help to get up, like something perfect that had started to crack.

Before Draco could figure out anything to say, Father spoke first: "Draco, I died a year ago. Severus, my dearest friend and brother in all but blood, revived me five days ago. Since then, he has saved my life at least thirty-eight times. There is no word that I can use to express my gratitude toward him."

Snape stared at Father, as if being quite annoyed by Father's words, then shook his head and climbed up the stairs, murmuring: "Don't die in the next hour. I really need some sleep."

The moment Snape disappeared from the staircase and the suitcase door got closed, Father opened his arms, with some tears glistening in his eyes.

Draco knew this was the hint that he could abandon Malfoy demeanor now, in front of the very man who taught him how to behave like a Malfoy.

Draco threw himself into Father's arms and began sobbing.


	10. Chapter 10 Secrets

Chapter 10.

There were so many questions that Draco wanted to ask, there were so many things he wanted to tell Father, but he just couldn't find any words.

Draco felt Father's large warm hand slowly patting his head, and heard Father's soothing voice: "Oh my dear dragon, my Draco, my precious son."

The last time Father held and patted Draco like this, it was when Draco almost died from the blood-cooling charm, which was just about a million years ago. Now, Draco wanted to stay like this forever. He didn't want to think about the world outside this suitcase, he didn't want to save wizarding Britain from being attacked by enemies and "allies" on a daily basis, he didn't want to deal with Harry's weird ideas nor Hermione's kindness nor Madam Bones' resentments nor Mad-Eye's righteousness, he just wanted to be his Father's boy again.

Draco wanted to grab Father's robes tighter, then he suddenly realized that he was still holding Father's wand. This broke the trance. Draco raised his head from Father's shoulder, and awkwardly handed Father's snake-headed wand stick back to him while sniffing: "Father, your wand."

Father looked at his wand with some longing, then smiled: "No, Draco, you will continue to hold the family wand."

Then Draco remembered the pain Father had been in just minutes ago, and Father had also said something about Snape saving him the thirty-eight times in the past five days. He… he might lose Father, again.

-_But NO, I shall not. The Boy-Who-Lived, in his stupidity and naivety, has done one good thing. He has made the power of the Stone available to everyone, even including... _

-_Even including the Death Eaters who are currently held in Nurmengard._

Draco realized in dawning horror: whatever was wrong with Father, if he went to beg Harry for help, Harry would heal Father, and then send Father to Nurmengard.

-_No, there got to be some way to save Father without losing him to prison. Maybe I can send Father to the Healing Center under a false identity, with some disguise, and the Stone can make the transfiguration permanent. Yeah, that's the plan. And Father can later get married with Mother, and we can live openly together. Father wouldn't mind using a lesser identity, would he?_

"Father, what, what was the previous pain about?" Draco suppressed his sniffing and asked.

Father handed Draco a handkerchief from a pocket of his plain robes.

The handkerchief was nowhere near the ones that Father had used, the fabrics were too rough, the design was ugly, and there was no magic on it. An inferior muggle product, maybe. But Father was always prepared. Draco even had a much better handkerchief in his own pocket, but he still took Father's and began to wipe out his tears.

Father casted some anti-spying charms around them with a disposable wand as Draco wiped his face and surveyed the inside of the suitcase for the first time. Just from the size of it, Draco could tell that this wasn't cheap, and the carpet looked new as well. The furniture was too simple for the taste of British elites, but it had a sense of "modern" design Draco knew from Mother's magazines that some articles written for political correctness reasons mentioned. There were potion books and magazines on the bookshelves. On a rack besides the sofa, there were some bottles of potions, a first-aid kit, and something else that Draco thought he might have seen from Harry's muggle medical collections. For sure, this suitcase belonged to Snape, and it was purchased from somewhere people interact with muggles more, say, the United States. It seemed that the man had a lot of money in his pocket recently, yet the taste was still poor.

But Snape's aesthetics were the least of Draco's concerns now. He could tell that it was strenuous for Father to cast some of the charms, charms that even he could cast if he put his might into it, and the wand wasn't exactly matching, either.

-_So, whatever is inflicting Father's body must have affected Father's magic as well. That's more problematic, the Stone doesn't remove curses._

After six or seven spells, Father stopped, swaying a little bit, and smiled bitterly. "Well, if Severus really wants to know, he will know anyway. Let's sit down, Draco."

Draco sat down on one of the two sofas in the room, and Father sat down beside him.

Father looked at Draco in the eyes, care and a hint of worry showing in those grey-blue eyes. "Draco, there are matters that I have to tell you, and some of them can only be passed from one living mind to another. There are also information I cannot disclose to you yet, and I shall tell you so."

Draco gulped, he knew this was not a good sign. His life near the Boy-Who-Lived was full of important secrets already. Draco hoped against hope Father's secret would not involve Harry, otherwise, otherwise...

"First, I am a snake animagus, a Blue Krait to be exact." Father said with a smile.

Draco almost broke into tears again: his patronus really did represent Father, and that's a tie that nothing could break. If Draco didn't remind himself that he was in front of Father, he might have jumped up with joy. Oh, well, his snake patronus that he forgot to get back actually leapt to Father's lap, and Father just petted it, which made Draco blush a little.

Then Father hissed to Draco's patronus, which sounded quite similar to Harry's hisses when he saw Draco's patronus for the first time.

"Father, you are a Parselmouth?" Draco asked in astonishment.

-_Did Father feel disappointed when he found out that I am not? _

Father shook his head. "Not by birth, my son. But it would come naturally when you become a snake animagus, then it is much easier to learn to speak when you are in human form."

Draco felt much reassured. Animagus was something that could be learnt, and becoming an animagus was part of Harry's plan for every friend, anyway.

Father continued. "And there is something else that comes with Parseltongue. You cannot tell direct lies in it, Lord Slytherin made sure of that."

Maybe Draco had spent too much time together with Harry, he immediately saw how this could be useful in getting closer to Lord Harry, and how this could be used in Harry's weird plots. No, he had to stop thinking about Harry's unpredictable plots now.

"And it is also my belief that you have mastered the art of directing people to think falsehoods with true statements." Father said. "I need to remind you of another matter, the understanding and speaking of Parseltongue are not as uncommon as some arrogant Parselmouth might think. I suspect, among the more than one hundred languages Albus Dumbledore spoke, Parseltongue might have been one of them. And Parseltongue can be learnt from paintings, and a large number of Malfoy paintings can teach you if it is the case that your animagus form is not a snake."

Draco wanted to ensure Father that he would be a snake, but that wasn't the sort of thing that you could actually determine yourself.

As if reading Draco's mind, Father smiled and said: "Rest assured, my dragon, serpent and dragon are both on the Malfoy family crest, and both of them are common animagus forms of Malfoys."

Draco remembered the wyvern and snake on the family crest (which they now needed to hide because "Sanctimonia Vincet Semper", or "Purity Will Always Conquer", was no longer politically correct). He felt strangely better now.

"And here, it comes to some information that I knew of before my death, partially due to my understanding of Parseltongue." Father said flatly.

Draco's breath became rapid. Then as Father directed a blank look toward him, Draco quickly controlled himself.

Father's voice became a little strained. "My son, you are close to Harry Potter now, so you must know. After I was summoned to the graveyard, it seemed to me, both the Dark Lord and the Boy-Who-Lived seriously believed that according to a Prophecy, Harry Potter might destroy the world if things around him went wrong. And that was why the Dark Lord revived the Granger girl."

-_Err, what? I know there is something not quite adding up in Harry's story, but the Dark Lord intentionally resurrected Hermione? And Harry was really there, as some people speculated? And a Prophecy about him destroying the world?_

"And to further ensure that the Boy-Who-Lived would not destroy the world, the Dark Lord forced me to be the binder of an Unbreakable Vow. The contents of which was," Father drew in a breath, as if remembering something harsh, "I vow that I shall not by any act of mine destroy the world. I shall take no chances in not destroying the world. If my hand is forced, I may take the course of lesser destruction over greater destruction, unless it seems to me that this Vow itself leads to the world's end, and the friend in whom I have confided honestly agrees that this is so. By my own free will so shall it be."

Draco was first stunned at the content of the vow, and then he realized that Father was the binder, and that explained why Father's magic…

Draco gulped. He knew since he was little that what you lost in a sacrificial ritual could never be regained. And Father would be weak, forever.

Father patted the snake on his lap, as if not paying too much attention to his own magic. "Draco, you see, the matters revolve around the Boy-Who-Lived may get very dangerous. It is my understanding that Britain is already on the brim of a wizarding world war. And according to Severus, maybe due to his exhaustion, he let it slip that there is a muggle thing called a 'nuclear weapon' that Harry Potter may master, the use of which may induce a chain reaction from all muggle governments, which may lead to the end of the world."

The "nuclear weapon" thing, Draco had heard Hermione talked about it once, and Harry quickly stopped her. At that time, Draco thought it might be some secret that he was not to know. Now it seemed that a lot more wizards knew about this weapon than he thought. At least, Snape knew about it, and he let it slip to Father. Snape was not the type of person who would let some really important secret slip, so the muggle "nuclear weapon" might not be that secretive at all. Therefore, Draco would look it up.

"My son, I greatly regret that I must say such things to you at such a young age, and I may not be in a position to guide you as I wish I could," Sadness and sorrow appeared in Father's eyes, "Since you are close to the Boy-Who-Lived, and you are probably the only person to whom he may choose to confide in that is not blinded by good will or political correctness."

Father's left hand was on Draco's shoulder now, and he felt as if the whole world was put on his slender shoulders. Well, in a sense, the whole world WAS on his shoulders now, and it had been for a while without him noticing it.

Father's hand was firm, as well as his words. "You must maintain Harry Potter's trust at all cost, even if it means that you concede to the Girl-Who-Revived; you must stop Harry Potter at every possible corner from using powerful weapons, magical or not, that may cause apocalyptic disasters; you must evaluate his every political movement carefully, no matter how trivial or harmless it may seem at the time, and imagine all the possible dangers it may cause. I shall try my best to help you if my involvement is allowed and desired, but you must keep all information from me if my interference may lead to greater danger."

Draco felt his mouth dry. He sort of already guessed out the danger Harry might cause, but nobody really put it like that. Draco had imagined Hogwarts on fire because of Harry, or maybe all the residents in Hogsmeade got slaughtered, or the Ministry of Magic and the Most Ancient Hall became rumbles, but nothing like THAT. And Father might not be there to help.

Then another part of Father's words caught Draco's attention: _You must maintain Harry Potter's trust at all cost_. Father had told him that it was OK to be in the third place for this game, which was a relief. But Draco also understood another cost Father had implied: Father intended it to be himself. He was going to turn himself in, so that he would not be a liability, and Draco would not lose Harry's trust once the Boy-Who-Lived found out.

No, Draco couldn't let that happen. He couldn't lose Father again. He needed to think of something.

Father's hand tightened on Draco's shoulder, his voice grim. "As for my death, I honestly have no idea what killed me, and you are not to know, nor to ask for details. All I know for sure is, the Dark Lord did not succeed in killing Harry Potter, but was vanquished by him instead. For whatever was used in that process by the Boy-Who-Lived, be it magical or not, you are not to know, and you are not to inquire."

Draco swallowed and nodded. He understood that part well, or, he thought he did. The Dark Lord probably sacrificed all the Death Eaters there just to eliminate Harry's existence from the world, but it somehow rebounded, or something of sorts. Whatever that was, Draco was not to know.

"As for my revival, I suspect Severus stole my head, and preserved it well. He certainly recreated my body with the ritual that the Dark Lord used on the Granger girl." Father's eyes grew a bit distant now, as if trying to remember something. "And to make me breath again, Severus used his patronus. At least, that was the case when my heart stopped three days ago. I faintly remember seeing Severus' patronus. If it were not my hallucination, then that patronus must be very bright. I remember you told me that the Boy-Who-Lived's patronus was very bright as well. I suspect that that strange patronus must be one of the key elements. And in Severus' annoyance to my tirade of gratitudes," Father smiled a sly smile, "He said he might lose his will to kill me in the ritual, though I shall not rely too much on it. But what he said right after he revived me, that he preferred me to live than to die, is highly likely to be true, and is likely to be a key element in the ritual as well."

Draco was not sure after hearing this.

-_The whole resurrection thing must be very dark and dangerous, right? The Dark Lord disappeared soon after he revived Hermione, and there's something horribly wrong with Father's resurrection. Why did Father tell me all this? Does he feel he may not have chance to tell me later?_

As Draco's brain was forming the worst hypothesis to explain Father's behavior, Father continued to speak: "Severus was quite successful in a large part of the ritual, but he lacked one of the key elements, the Stone. Since the ritual seemed to be transfiguration in nature, without the original Stone, my body will become air again without Severus' constant magical input."

-_Oh, wait, the ritual is transfiguration in nature? Transfiguration rituals are not that dark, you just need to be careful not to let transfigured things get into your body. And with the Stone, the transfiguration can be fixed in form, and Father would be fine._

Now Draco felt much better about knowing the key elements of the revival ritual, where knowledge could only be passed from one living mind to another.

Then Father's face became very serious, and his hand stern like steel. "Draco, I need to tell you some lore that did not make sense to me before, some riddle that I only resolved very recently, and something that could be the last resort for Malfoys. Remember the bedtime stories about our ancestor, Armand Malfoy, the first Malfoy in Great Britain?"

Draco nodded. He remembered history of the family well.

According to what Father told Draco, Armand Malfoy had served Lord Slytherin well when Lord Slytherin was in his old age, and became his trusted lieutenant. In the meanwhile, he also served in the courts of the muggle Duke of Normandy. In 1066, with Armand's help, the Duke won the Battle of Hastings, thus became King of England. For his service, Armand was awarded with land and the castle which later became Malfoy Manor. The later part gave Draco quite the shock when he first heard it, and Father had told Draco to keep that part of the family history secret.

After Father signed the deal with Harry, Father told Draco more about the family history. Before the passing of the International Statute of Secrecy, Malfoys were more involved in muggle business than they openly admitted today. A number of Malfoys had been respected counselors of many kings and queens. It was rumored that Queen Elizabeth I and the first Lucius Malfoy were secret lovers. But since she was a muggle, Lucius Malfoy I couldn't marry her. She was so heartbroken that she refused to marry anyone, and stayed single for life. Just by looking at Father, Draco could easily imagine how a muggle noble woman's heart would fall for his ancestor.

And the gist of the stories was, Malfoys must not marry people with inferior blood status, even if it were the Queen or King of England; but Malfoys could surely take wealth and power from muggles, as long as it was convenient and nobody in the wizarding world knew about it.

"I shall tell you lore that my Father told me, which was also told to him by his Father. It was said that Armand Malfoy, a wyvern animagus and Lord Slytherin's most trusted lieutenant, was hit by a slow lethal curse in a battle. After slaying all his enemies, upon Armand's own request, Lord Slytherin killed Armand in his animagus form, and made his heartstring, the only part that had not been affected by the curse yet, the core of the Malfoy family wand. It was made so that it would suit every Malfoy heir. And this wand, is said to be the Malfoy family's last resort." Father's voice was stern. "I did not fully understand why this wand was called the last resort before. A powerful wand for sure, but it is much less powerful than the Elder Wand. I pondered this for a long time without answers. Somewhere in history, the real knowledge of the wand was lost. I had left you a letter about the story of the wand I knew before I died, but it seems that that is unnecessary now. I did not fully understand the lore until I was revived. It seems that my head was least affected by the diminishing power of transfiguration, so I suspected that Severus must have preserved my head by magic, and used it for the resurrection ritual. And it was my understanding that Granger's body was missing after she died, and that must be what was used in the ritual that resurrected her. Therefore, with part of the body, people can be revived. However, a problem presents itself in this way: someone who is as determined and as powerful as Severus may preserve part of the body of the deceased for several years, or maybe a hundred years, but nobody would really care about someone who died thousands of years ago. And the best way to make sure that part of your body is preserved over history -"

Father smiled slyly. His hand left Draco's shoulder, and gently touched the Malfoy family wand.

And Draco got it.

-_It is to make your body part of a very useful heirloom, a powerful wand for example, so there will be constant input of magic to preserve your body part. And later on, maybe you will have an offspring who is clever enough to figure out the revival ritual, and you will be resurrected. Lord Slytherin might know such ritual existed, but he probably didn't know the details or the key elements, so he preserved his trusted lieutenant's heartstring in a family wand. And if Harry's actions may really lead to the end of the world, then I should resurrect Armand Malfoy, and ask for his help. Even if I have to do it without the real Stone, Armand may still live for a few hours, and that's probably enough time for passing down some really powerful magic to prevent the destruction of the world. _

Draco smiled: _Lord Slytherin was very cunning indeed. In this way, the Interdict of Merlin can be bypassed. And I wonder if he left part of himself somewhere as well. Harry hasn't really looked for the Chamber of Secrets, has he?_

Just as Draco started to contemplate how to find the Chamber of Secrets, he remembered that he was supposed to stop Harry from destroying the world, and he probably should not do anything dangerous.

Sometimes, Draco really thought murdering Harry was a good idea for the world, or even the entire universe. But since the Dark Lord sacrificed thirty-six Death Eaters to do that, yet failed and got himself vanquished, Draco guessed he probably shouldn't try the same thing.

After a moment of silence, Father spoke with a hint of nervous that was different from something that could end the world: "Draco, how is your Mother?"

Note:

Malfoy family crest can be seen from _Harry Potter Film Wizardry_. It is green and silver in color, and has a wyvern and serpents on it. The family motto is "Sanctimonia Vincet Semper" on the crest, and it means "Purity Will Always Conquer". And some of the Malfoy family history comes from Pottermore, and of course, twisted in the eyes of Malfoys. (In Pottermore, Lucius Malfoy I failed in his attempt to woo Queen Elizabeth I, and hexed her. Nothing was mentioned about the relationship between Armend Malfoy and Salazar Slytherin.) And in an interview, the actor of Lucius Malfoy said that the family wand was about one thousand years old, and had been passed down from generation to generation.


	11. Chapter 11 Meeting

Chapter 11.

2:45 pm, June 24th, 1993

Harry stared at the fireplace in his office in Hogwarts, contemplating.

About fifteen minutes ago, Harry was doing something that a normal twelve-year old boy would do during the summer holidays, or close to it. He sat lazily in a couch beside the window of the living room in his family's hiding place, criticizing the decisions made by the heroes of science fiction novels together with Dad.

Flipping through _Doomsday Book_, Dad casually said: "Kivrin Engle shouldn't travel to the dark age by herself in the first place. And by the way, Harry, I know you have a time machine, but don't mess with Time."

Harry duly nodded.

-_Yeah, traveling back to the middle ages to observe history by yourself is obviously a bad idea. You should at least have companions for such expeditions. And time-traveling to some place and time that you are not completely sure of? Absurd._

Just as Harry was imagining how he could do better, a snake patronus emerged from the corner of the room. The silver Krait slithered its way to Harry, and said: "Harry, I have recently learned some information that I need to tell you. Professor Snape will be with me. Your headquarters office in Hogwarts?"

Draco used "your headquarters office in Hogwarts" in his message. According to their predetermined code system, this meant something with great potential danger. Harry knew it was a lame coding method, which he needed to change periodically, but Draco hadn't learned muggle cryptography yet, and it was better than nothing.

Harry looked at Dad apologetically. Dad laughed and said, "Go and save the world, Harry."

Dad was joking, because he thought the most damage wizards could do was to kill a bunch of people.

Fifteen minutes later, Harry was dealing with another crisis. Harry did get tired of this sometimes, but for the most part, he just thought this was just what life should be. So the Boy-Who-Lived waited for Draco and Professor Snape in his office in Hogwarts, wondering what this could be about.

From Mad-Eye's daily report, Harry knew that Severus Snape arrived at Gringotts in London this morning, every part as the greasy potions master as he was one year ago, and apparently tired and impatient. And according to Madam Bones, who had been watching the Malfoys very closely in the past year, Severus was here to deliver a message to Draco before he came into his magical majority.

It wasn't any real surprise for Harry that Lucius might have some information for Draco only when he became an adult or when he came into magical majority. After all, Lucius seemed to be quite prepared for his early death in his will. But why Severus? Were Lucius and Severus close?

Now, come to think of it, Harry realized that he knew little of that dark-haired greasy Potions Master besides his love for Lily and his desire to redeem Slytherin.

Besides the enigmatic ex-Head of House Slytherin, the more pressing question was what the danger might be. From the looks of it, it was probably related to whatever Lucius wanted Draco to know.

-_Some truly powerful magic that can only be passed from one mind to another? Did Lucius trust Severus this much? Draco never showed it, but maybe even Draco didn't know. Or could it be that Draco discovered some danger within some seemingly mundane message?_

Then the fireplace lit up, and the soon-to-be Lord Malfoy stepped out, with the snake-headed wand in hand. The Thief's Downfall by the fireplace washed through him without any magical alarm triggered.

Harry tried to read Draco's face, and tried to guess what level of danger he might need to deal with. The apparently newly changed and washed blond boy's eyes seemed to jump back and forth between happiness and agony, and his face twitched several times when he saw Harry.

Harry immediately had his wand at hand, and started to wonder if he should call Mad-Eye here at once, in case that Draco was under some variation of the imperius curse or something with similar effects.

Then Severus Snape stepped out of the fireplace. The man was as greasy and unkempt as ever; his skin was yellow, his cheeks were sallow, and there were blood vessels visible in his dark eyes. And he carried a grey suitcase with him, presumably the suitcase he carried out of Gringotts.

Just as Harry was wondering if both Slytherins were fighting some mind-control curses, the black-haired man opened his mouth."Mr. Potter, before we speak, I need to secure this place."

Then Severus began to cast one spell after another on the room. A lot of them Harry had seen before, but two of the spells Harry hadn't even seen Professor Quirrell cast. The "_Resonantia Evado_" spell sounded like having something to do with prevention of resonance or echo, and the other spell didn't even sound like pseudo-Latin.

Watching Severus casting privacy spells, Harry felt a little bit safer, since if Severus was indeed controlled by enemies, he would have attacked Harry already, unless he wanted to kill Harry without anyone noticing it.

After twenty-six spells, Severus turned to Harry. "Mr. Potter, I first need to tell you that I can understand and speak some Parseltongue, so that you know what I am about to say is true."

"You what?" Harry looked at Severus in astonishment. In the peripheral part of Harry's vision, he saw Draco opened his mouth as well.

Severus rolled his eyes, and hissed. "_Not ass uncom-mon ass you v-would like? Eassier to undersstand, much h-harder to sspeak for na… non-native. Albuss sspeakss too._"

-_Drat. Oh well._

Harry slowly closed his mouth, and duly crossed Parseltongue from his "things-only-Harry/Voldemort-can-do" list. He reminded himself again that other people could sometimes do amazing and unusual things as well, such as preventing Harry from destroying the world. For the safety of the world, Harry should do a better job learning the lesson even Voldemort tried to teach him.

-_Oh, wait. Voldemort said in Parseltongue that nobody, not even snake animagus could understand Parseltongue. Then probably he didn't think of the possibility that someone could just learn it, or he was just too arrogant to think about it. Just like I was._

-_And I should have thought of it earlier, that Dumbledore trusted Severus Snape for a REASON, and not only based his teenage crush on my mother. On the other hand, if everyone can learn Parseltongue, the most simple way is to use it in court. Even perfect occlumens can't lie in Parseltongue, though they can have someone else to modify their memories before trial..._

Just as Harry started to formulate possible uses of Parseltongue, Severus continued uneasily in broken snake language. "_I confesss to you. I wanted to rew-revive Lily, and my own... mother, and ussed La-Luciuss Malfoy ass a t-tesst ssubject._"

Harry opened his mouth again. On a certain level, Harry had been feeling quite lonely that it seemed that Harry was the only wizard who had cared enough to try to revive dead friends or lovers for that matter. And now, the greasy ex-Potions Master seemed to have taken some serious steps in that. Harry felt warm and anxious at the same time: _Did Severus hide my mother's body after she died? Did he do it fast enough, so that mother was not brain dead? And he tried on Lucius, what method did he use? Could it be -_

Then Harry wanted to hit himself with a hammer: _Severus had demonstrated how easy it was to break the protection charms on the magical trunk almost in front of him before, it would be no trouble at all for him to take Harry's pouch and make a duplicate copy of Voldemort's revival instructions. And, and -_

Harry realized in dawning horror that the current copy in his pouch might not be the original one at all, and he might never know until it was time to try. After Harry got the detailed instructions, he pointedly avoided reading it, because he didn't trust himself on such dangerous magic. Harry did have a plan to resurrect everyone that had ever lived, and Lily and James Potter were on the top of that list, but that would be in some distant future, say, after he graduated from Hogwarts and learned how not to destroy the world.

Come to think of it, Harry also found how lucky the world had been that it hadn't be destroyed because Harry didn't really secure his pouch. Even now, all the protection charms on Harry's pouch came from Headmistress Minerva McGonagall, which Harry assumed Severus or some random powerful dark wizard could break with a breath.

Before Harry could formulate more worst-case scenarios in his mind, Severus hissed uneasily. "_Ressult wass ssuccesssful, ek-except no orignal Sstone to v-fix... form._"

Severus opened his suitcase, and a Blue Krait was revealed on the floor in the room inside the suitcase. Before Harry could cast any protection charms, the snake swirled and twisted into a pale looking Lucius Malfoy with no wand at hand. And Severus ran down the stairs of his suitcase, and start casting diagnostic and healing spells on Lucius.

As Harry subconsciously recognized the resemblance of some of the healing spells as those ones mentioned by six or seven year transfiguration textbook for healing accidental ingestion of transfigured food, the white-haired man swayed, tilted his head, and hissed faintly. "_Good afternoon, Lord Potter._"

By the time Lucius spoke in Parseltongue, the snake language was no longer that much of a shock to Harry. Lucius was apparently a snake animagus, anyway. And this also partially explained why Severus and Lucius might be closer than others thought they were.

The way bigger news was: whatever resurrection ritual Severus used, it could actually be conducted by a moderately powerful wizard. Harry had worried that the resurrection ritual Lord Voldemort gave him might require some extra powerful wizards to perform, or maybe it was specifically designed for either Tom Riddle. Though resurrecting everyone was one of Harry's ultimate goals, Harry didn't want to spend all his time reviving people, or Hermione's time, for that matter. This could be really great news for humanity.

Besides that, there were several minor notes that: first, the Hogwarts security system had some deficiency in detecting animagi; second, a possible ex-Death Eater had been revived; and third, Severus did mention the need for the Stone, so the ability to revive people was still limited.

The only one who didn't know Parseltongue in this room had an entirely different focus on subject. "Harry, would you use the Stone to heal Father? Otherwise, Professor Snape would have to reapply healing charms on him every one or two hours, or, or... " The blond boy's eyes began to glister.

-_Oh, right._

A year ago, Harry had preferred Lucius to stay temporarily dead until it was time to revive everyone, because he thought it would be easier to reform magical Britain. Now, the power structure in wizarding Britain was largely adjusted to Harry's taste, so Lucius didn't need to be dead. Moreover, Harry couldn't let Draco lose his Father again, not again, not in front of him, not slowly and painfully.

"Of course. But Draco, and Lord Malfoy, you do need to understand, err," Harry found it hard to let Draco know that his Father would be locked up in prison. Harry tried to find the words.

Lucius calmly finished Harry's sentence for him. "I shall be subjected to the laws of Britain for what I have conducted before my demise. Lord Potter, please rest assured_ that I have no intention to jeopardize my sson's political future, nor do I bear any intention to do harm to you or yoursss._"

Draco's face twisted, and Severus looked away for a second. But Harry knew due legal process needed to be carried out for the sake of justice and the victims of Lucius' past crimes, for example, Madam Bones' brother's whole family except Susan.

Harry knew that he couldn't just send Lucius to the Hospital to be treated by the Stone without a plausible story made up and agreed upon, and according to what was said, Lucius would be fine within the next hour or so.

"Lord Malfoy, we need to talk." Harry wasn't too sure whether to have Draco and Severus by their side or not. They might venture into dangerous topics that Harry might not want either Draco or Severus to know, and Harry had lost his trust on the privacy of Parseltongue entirely. On the other side, there's no guarantee that Lucius won't change his mind and decided to attack Harry, in which case Harry might need Draco to remind him of the consequences and need Severus for protection.

Lucius eyed his son collectedly, and sat down on a couch in the suitcase. "Lord Potter, you may put a full-body binding charm on me if you like."

That was a pretty good idea, actually. Harry raised his wand and cast, "Petrificus Totalus." Harry made sure not to use too much magic in the charm, because he didn't want to actually hurt Lucius.

Lucius' entire body froze up except his head.

Severus then cast some additional restrictive charms on Lucius, including an anti-animagus charm. When Severus conjured a rope and start to physically bind Lucius to the couch, Harry reached into his pouch and offered a muggle rope. Severus paused, then nodded approvingly, and used the muggle rope instead.

Harry knew Draco was clenching his fists the whole time, but this had to be done.

Finally, Severus hissed. "_I'll leave, and make ssure no one hearss conw-converssation._"

After Severus exited the suitcase, Harry slowly entered, stood on the top-most stair, and closed the suitcase door behind him.


	12. Chapter 12 Lucius-Secrets and Knowledge

Chapter 12.

2:53 pm, June 24th, 1993

First Private Meeting, Lucius Malfoy, Part I. Secrets and Knowledge

With his regular wand, Harry cast the seven privacy spells that he could master without tiring himself out, then stopped. He might need his magic later, and he didn't want to show the Elder wand in front of Lucius, who might not have deduced that Harry had it.

Harry turned and looked at the fully-bound blond aristocrat on the couch on the bottom of the suitcase. The elder Malfoy's robe was as fine and expensive as ever, yet the design was too extravagant for the current simplistic trend; his neatly combed long mane had lost some of its former glamour, wearing a sense of fragility; and his face was as pale as paper, yet the blue-grey eyes were still calculating, showing that he might strike with his mind alone at any moment.

Lucius spoke. "_Lord Potter, I know the dangerouss water that my sson iss treading through bessidess you, and I have no dessire to tilt the balance further toward world desstruction._"

Harry was then reminded of the fact that Lucius was the binder of the Unbreakable Vow and a snake animagus, and… Harry's heart dropped as he realized what Draco might know now.

"_As for my temporary demisse,_" Lucius continued, "_I have only told Draco that I have no idea what killed me, I jusst know that the Dark Lord failed to kill you. And I told him he iss not to know, and not to inquire. He might think that the Dark Lord tried to ssacrifice all the Death Eaterss to kill you, but failed for ssome reason._"

Lucius' emotionless words were sort of a comfort for Harry, because some part of human nature still made Harry want to postpone the potentially disastrous confrontation with Draco as long as possible. Come to think about it now, if no other Death Eater present could understand Parseltongue, the explanation provided by Lucius could be another version of the "true" story, even after Harry revived all of them. Lucius was indeed a Slytherin who could be quite considerate for whichever master he served.

Harry gave an inward sigh. Mad-Eye and Madam Bones had reminded Harry repeatedly on how the Malfoys had served as lieutenants for every powerful lord in Britain with the utmost efficiency, just that they always dumped their previous master for a new one when the next most powerful lord emerged. This description reminded Harry of professional business managers and the Home Civil Service in the muggle world, which Harry considered highly useful. And since Harry planned to stay as the most powerful lord forever, he wasn't too worried about Draco's loyalty problem. Besides, Harry had thought, with Harry providing guidance instead of Lucius, Draco would become a much better person than his father or any previous Malfoy.

But Lucius was back now, and Harry didn't want to prohibit Draco from contacting his father. Harry started to worry that Lucius might hone Draco differently. The older Malfoy would undoubtedly teach Draco how to please a lord, a skill that had been perfected by generations of Malfoys over the past one thousand years. Harry knew that he would find Draco's new skills pleasant and quite convenient at times, but he didn't want that. Harry wanted Draco to be his friend more than his lieutenant or minion, and Harry wonder if the older Malfoy would ever understand the difference.

It went without saying that Harry wouldn't give up on Draco, he would just keep Draco closer.

Lucius observed Harry closely, pondering, then said. "_Otherwisse, what would be your ssuggesstion?_"

"_That'sss a fine ansswer to give,_" Harry answered. And coincidentally, true.

"_It iss to my undersstanding that all major powerss in the world covet the power of the Sstone for themselvess,_" Lucius calmly stated. "_Yet Wizarding Britain doess not have any power that it can publicly demonsstrate that showss the world that it can defend itsself._"

Harry had been reminded again about how stupid he was a year ago. After spending his first year thinking about how to finish off Voldemort, Harry's thought were pretty much limited to that level of threat. He had thought the only danger to the Stone would come on the order of a dark lord plus a few dozen minions. He had also forgotten that ancient and/or powerful wards did not actually work without powerful lords who didn't make mistakes. Dumbledore could sneak into Malfoy Manor and kidnap Narcissa Malfoy even though the wards might be set up by some ancient wizard who was stronger than Dumbledore; and Voldemort could sneak into Hogwarts and teach for a year, because Dumbledore didn't verify his identity using the Map. What was worse, Harry had completely forgotten that the threat could come in the form of several magical nations, in which case they could just brute-force through whatever ancient wards Hogwarts had and whatever protections money could buy. He should be better than that. He should have realized that since muggle governments went to war with other countries for oil and resources all the time, magical governments would just do the same when the incentive was high enough. The difference was, these days muggle nations had nuclear weapons so the major powers were kept in check by the fear of mutually assured destruction; yet wizards only had powerful lords and ancient artifacts.

-_And that's been the central problem for a while. It seems Lucius has guessed that I have some extra powerful weapon that can actually cause great destruction. Well, I have threatened Voldemort with massive explosion in Parseltongue, so Lucius might have guessed from that. The problem is, the ideas about antimatter, unbounded quarks, and mass-production of nuclear weapons are simply too dangerous to let anyone know. Britain needs another Dumbledore or someone similar: powerful, yet not outside the regular thinking box of wizards._

While Harry was thinking, Lucius continued to hiss. "_To that problem, I have formulated ssome sspectulationss ssince my revival. Lord Potter, you might be able to revive ssome of your powerful ancesstorss, such ass the Peverell brotherss._"

Harry didn't think it was possible that anyone could preserve the Peverell brothers' brains for more than a thousand years, but he didn't plan to tell this to Lucius, so he continued listening.

"_After I wass revived, I deduced that the preservation of ssome part of the body might be esssential for the ritual - ssince my head wass least affected by the declining power of transfiguration, Sseveruss might have preserved my head after I died. Previoussly, I have heard that the core of the Elder wand iss thestral hair, and the ssign of Deathly Hallowss were drawn with thestral blood on the inner side of the Cloak of Invisibility. Of the Resurrection Sstone, I knew little. Then I began to sspeculate, what if the core of the Elder wand wass not thestral hair, but ssome part of Antioch Peverell, and the blood inside your Cloak of Invisibility wass in fact from Ignotus Peverell? As for the Resurrection Sstone, ssince few information wass out there for the making, I dare not speculate. If that containss ssome part of Cadmuss Peverell, and if my deduction about the wand and the cloak are true, then all three brotherss can be revived using the ritual. _"

Harry almost asked Lucius how he came to realize that the materials used in the Elder wand and the Cloak of Invisibility were not from thestrals, but he closed his mouth in time. After all, Draco had demonstrated amazing abilities and instincts in solving mysteries prior to any systematic training from Harry - Draco could deduce Professor Sprout was involved in Hermione's murder all because the Herbology professor assigned less homework during that period of time. Draco might get his ability somewhere.

Then it occurred to Harry that the odd construction of another wand that might lead Lucius to doubt the core of the Elder wand: the Malfoy family wand.

Due to Mad-Eye's lectures on Malfoy history, Harry had known that unlike most wands that only fit one person and barely worked for other family members, the Malfoy family wand could fit every male Malfoy. Harry had originally speculated that wand was made to respond to a specific Y chromosome, but now it seemed the Malfoy family wand might indeed been made from the body of some Malfoy ancestor.

"_What iss the core of the Malfoy family wand, then?_" Harry asked.

Lucius raised his eyebrow as if half expecting this question, then answered proudly. "_Heartsstring of Armand Malfoy while he wass dying in the form of a wyvern,_ _made by Lord Sslytherin himsself._"

Now Harry saw the scheme: _some body part in the core of a powerful wand, passed down from generation to generation, so that magic will always flow through it and preserve the core. And if someone later figures out how to revive someone from their body part, even only for a limited amount of time, there might still be enough time to pass down important information and powerful magic, bypassing the Interdict of Merlin._

Then Harry's heart sank: _cunning as Lord Slytherin was, he probably didn't know much about anatomy. He might have believed humans used their heart to think, instead of their brain. Therefore, he only preserved his lieutenant's heartstring. And since Cadmus Peverell was said to be Salazar Slytherin's ancestor, Lord Slytherin might got the idea from Peverell brothers. In the _Warlock's Hairy Heart_ story, a powerful wizard was able to live and function without his heart for a while before he died. And Antioch Peverell died the day after he had the Elder wand. So the core of the Elder wand might be Antioch's heart._

Harry felt a wave of sadness for his ancestors. Cunning, brilliant, brave and powerful wizards as they were, they lacked one essential piece knowledge necessary for their endeavor. But there were still some positive notes to the history: _A man as cunning as Salazar Slytherin wouldn't rely on one scheme to achieve his goals. Slytherin's plot with Malfoy's wand didn't work, but his plot with the basilisk did. And I wonder how many other plans he had. And since I haven't seen the Resurrection Stone yet, it might contain some secrets that Voldemort didn't tell me or he didn't realize, which may or may not be essential in my ultimate plan to revive everyone._

Harry also wondered if he should tell Lucius the sad part about their family wand, but then decided against it. He couldn't tell Lucius or Draco about it, not until he had consulted with Hermione first.

There was also some nagging feelings that Harry couldn't quite point out. It's about -

Harry remembered the first lesson Draco taught him: _sharing secrets can make people feel more intimate toward each other. Lucius showed that he had deduced some secrets in Harry's ancestral relics, and he had expected Harry to deduce the same for the Malfoy family wand. In this way, secrets were shared, and Harry would also feel good about himself for how smart he was. A sly snake indeed._

Even when Harry knew exactly the game Lucius was playing, it still worked. Sharing secrets on that level did make Harry feel closer to - maybe not Lucius - but Draco for sure. And even the part that Lucius hadn't realized yet had made Harry more protective toward Draco. Harry didn't want Draco to run out of all his resources - or when Harry was about to destroy the world and Draco needed to stop him - attempt to resurrect Armand Malfoy as a last resort, and find him brain-dead and unable to provide any help. And that might or might not be part of Lucius' plan.

Pondering all that, Harry slowly hissed. "_Thank you for your information. I may think about it._"

Lucius nodded, as if he hadn't just revealed one of the biggest secrets in the Malfoy family, and changed to another topic. "_I expect my reappearance would attract great interesst world-wide, sso falsse identity or plaussible sstory iss needed._"

Harry nodded absentmindedly. Compared to the important secrets about the Peverell brothers' relics, creating a false identity for Lucius was much easier. Severus could change Lucius' appearance, and then it could be fixed by the Stone.

"_I have a falsse identity in the United Sstatess, sson of a British wizard and an American witch, home educated, with birth certificate and everything. It has been occasionally ussed in businessess in North America and carefully maintained for several yearss._"

Somewhere from the back of Harry's mind, one of his versions of himself almost wanted to praise Lord Malfoy for his excellent foresight on having a suitable false identity ready and could provide it as Lord Harry needed. Harry needed to consciously have his dark lord instinct in check.

"_But such an identity might prove problematic, ssince the Americanss might be eager for an excusse to intervene in British affairss already, and they would ssurely intercede if a ssupposed citizen of the United Statess iss imprisoned under British law,_" The blond politician hissed dispassionately. "_A falsse identity from other countriess would produce ssimilar effectss._"

-_Once again, I am too naive for international politics. _

The fact was, Harry's primary tutorial books on heroism, the science fiction ones, rarely dealt with affairs on this level; and the political science books that Harry had just begun to read recently rarely spoke on the finesses of international politics. And those books, mostly written by western muggle scholars, primarily discussed the proper strategies for powerful countries. Without Albus Dumbledore and with the Stone, Harry guessed that he should actually read books on strategies for oil-rich countries that didn't have enough power to defend themselves. Judging from what happened in the Middle East, the muggle strategists didn't have good solutions, either. Currently, Harry had barely maintained the delicate balance with help from Madam Bones, who was good at Wizengamot affairs but not prepared for the international stage, and Draco's untrained political instinct.

Harry couldn't help but think how useful it would be to have Lucius as a political counselor from time to time. In a country where there were merely eight thousand wizards or so, finding a cunning diplomat wasn't something as easy as having a Foreign Office in muggle Britain, where there were about fifty-eight million people. Mr. Bartimus Crouch, Sr. had been a good diplomat, but since his only son had been found among the beheaded Death Eaters, he had had a mental breakdown that no Stone could heal, and had stayed in St. Mungos for more than a year. Besides Mr. Crouch, there were few competent workers in the Department of International Relations, let alone cunning ones. What was worse, the diplomatic skills in the wizarding world were not trained by schools or governments like in the muggle world, only passed down from father to son in a limited number of old families. Either that, or someone would have to be as brilliant and powerful as Dumbledore to figure it out over a hundred years. With the Monroe family gone, the Crouch family soon to be gone, and Dumbledore frozen in Time, currently, there were only the Malfoys. Harry was pretty sure that since the total wizarding population of the world was only about one million, the diplomacy couldn't possibly be as complicated as it was in the muggle world. The problem was, Harry couldn't afford to make any mistakes; and if diplomacy failed, Harry couldn't just go into war with some magical country as muggle Britain did with Argentina.

-_Of course, justice has to be served, but I wonder if I should sometimes use Lucius' mind, say, let Draco send his patronus to Nurmengard. Lucius doesn't want the world destroyed, anyway…_

"_However, faking a new identity in Great Britain wass not ass eassy ass it seemss. The Quill of Acceptance writess down the name of every magical child in Great Britain at the time of their birth. To my knowledge, until my demisse, the Ministry of Magic obtained a copy of the record each year from Hogwarts, and it wass not considered classified information. Everyone could see it if they dessired sso. Even the Dark Lord needed to murder David Monroe to take hiss identity, insstead of complete forgery. Unfortunately, judging from the general interesst in our internal affairss from the world, and if what I knew about the Ministry before iss partially true today, copiess of the birth recordss have already found their ways to the handss of multiple countriess and everyone with a generouss pocket. _"

Harry was completely speechless at this point. He simply knew too little about how the Ministry functioned, and this could all be key information in a war. Harry started to wonder if Lucius should be locked up in a secret secured prison somewhere, and how secret the prison could be.

Lucius proposed his solution. "_I wonder if the following sstory would ssuffice. In the night of June 13__th__, 1992, when the Dark Lord enforced the sacrificial ritual, much of my magic wass losst. Partially due to my ssecret animaguss ability, I barely esscaped my death. And the head and body people later found in the graveyard were transfigured. As I wass not ssure that the Dark Lord wass really dead, and I was afraid of imprisonment, I initially thought assuming another identity might be a good idea. Sseveruss uncovered me from my previous disguisse. Transsfiguration wass used in the ensuing exchanges of magic, and that wass why I need healing from the Sstone. I convinced Sseveruss to let me meet my family firsst, then I should face my trial willingly. To the outsside world, my wife and sson will act ass if they are in dissappointment and fury toward my betrayal that I never let them know before thiss day that I am alive._"

Harry pondered Lucius' story, and found that every sentence in it was technically true, and whole story sounded pretty plausible. Mad-Eye had already made up some plausible dark ritual that a Department of Mysteries employee "accidentally" leaked some hints to the more shrewd crowd. Now, Lucius could claim his escape was part of the reason the ritual did not perform as intended. Harry believed Mad-Eye and Severus could fill in the details.

-_And justice and trials, exactly how things should be. _

As Harry was contemplating how to make the story more believable, Lucius smiled wryly. "_By the way, I ssuggesst that in recognition for Sseveruss' contribution in bringing a dangerous Death Eater back for jusstice, he should be awarded an Order of Merlin, First Classs._"

Harry nodded absentmindedly to this suggestion. Severus deserved it for figuring out how to revive people anyway.


	13. Chapter 13 Lucius-Justice

Chapter 13.

First Private Meeting, Lucius Malfoy, Part II. Justice

After knowing some important secrets, Harry realized the supposed topic of this meeting was actually Lucius' imprisonment. That sneaky snake was pretty good at distractions. "_Lord Malfoy, I undersstand that you do not want what you did to become Draco'ss weakness later. With that in mind, what crimess did you commit?_"

Lucius' face tightened, then went back to neutral. "_Lord Potter, ass for the ensuing legal processs, I need to clarify that I did not conduct all the crimess that I wass accussed of._"

Harry did think some of the things people said about Lucius might be exaggerated, but he was still a murderer among other atrocities.

Lucius' face showed a hint of frustration. "_Firsst, I have never violated any of the sso-called rape victimss, let alone other crimess of ssuch nature. Karkaroff hass a tasste for strong boyss, not me._"

From what Draco told him in the train station, Harry had thought the multiple-rape part of Lucius' crimes were quite likely to be true, but since the man had denied it in Parseltongue - well, Lucius was rich, handsome, young and single, he didn't need violence for his sexual desires; or, Lord Malfoy had done it more discreetly, so no victim actually remembered anything wrong had happened.

And if Harry were to believe everything being said about Lucius' sexual life, then the senior Malfoy was both a male and a female, both a veela and a vampire, both gay and straight, both a sadist and a masochist, impregnated by Voldemort/Grindelwald/Dumbledore/Abraxas Malfoy/fellow Death Eaters/his time-turned self and gave birth to Draco himself… When the rumors got to the point where Albus Dumbledore abducted Narcissa Malfoy because he was jealous and wanted Lucius all for himself, Harry felt it had gone too far and put his foot down on the juicy stories in _Daily Prophet_ and other major magazines. Unfortunately, the _Quibbler_ was still publishing stories such as how Voldemort had a secret daughter with Lucius, and disguised her as a boy named Draco, the Dark Lord failed in his experiment to make Draco a unicorn, and Hermione was revived as a partial unicorn by accident. Harry could still see that Draco needed to exercise extra self-restraint not to hex Luna Lovegood while the girl was saying "Draco, I am so sorry that you lost your father's child, but miscarriage isn't the end of the world."

Then Harry realized why Lucius might appear to be frustrated upon this part of his crimes: some of the more believable part of the stories could be somewhat difficult to explain to the wife that he hadn't seen for eleven years. And soon, Lucius would be locked up, so he probably wouldn't have much chance to repair his relationships with Narcissa for, say, the next several hundred years. Harry didn't mean to cause marriage issues in Death Eater families, but they should have thought of that before they teared other families apart by their atrocities. But it could be hard on Draco.

-_And crap, isn't Karkaroff the Headmaster of Durmstrang? If what Lucius said is true, Karkaroff needs to be removed from his position ASAP._

Harry sighed inwardly. "_I have no intention to put anything you didn't do on you. As for Karkaroff, evidence?_"

"_Karkaroff tesstified that I wass in charge of the raid that killed Madam Boness' younger brother'ss whole family except the newborn girl Ssusan Boness, and he alsso claimed that I violated her great-nephew before killing him. Actually, Karkaroff himsself wass the leader of that raid. I wass not even there._" Lucius looked quite indignant. "_And I wass not in the raid that sslaughtered Monroe family, either. Bellatrix led that one._"

Harry was surprised to hear that information in Parseltongue. Those two were the most notorious murders in Lucius' record. Harry could understand why Karkaroff would want to put the Bones case on someone else, but Karkaroff didn't have much motive to frame Lucius on the Monroe case, did he? So Harry asked. "_Tell me more about the Monroe casse._"

"_The Dark Lord ordered uss to kill everyone in the House of Monroe including the housse elvess before David Monroe arrived. I,_" Lucius said reluctantly, a bit of confusion in his eyes, "_I did not undersstand why we should leave the sstrongesst of the family unsscathed. And eradicating old familiess wass not my plan, either. Sso I gave my leader possition to Bellatrix in the lasst minute._"

Now Harry saw why Lucius wasn't in the Bones case or the Monroe case: _Lucius picked his enemies carefully. If they were ordered to kill a whole family but to leave the strongest and the youngest unscathed, Lucius would not do it. He didn't want to make strong mortal enemies, and he didn't want to fall into literary traps. A true snake indeed._

Then Harry remembered the first murdered that stroke him two years ago in Diagonal Alley. "_How about the writer Yermy Wibble and hiss family?_"

To that question, Lucius reluctantly nodded. "_It was my firsst raid in the Death Eaterss. Bellatrix led the raid, I killed Mrss. Wibble under Bellatrix'ss wand point._"

"_Did you torture them?_" Harry remembered the empty skins. "_Or sskin them?_"

Lucius' face showed a hint of disgust. "_No, I did not. Grayback ate the insside of the three female Wibbless in front of Yermy Wibble, and then Yermy himsself, even Bellatrix was ssick of that. And I tried to sstay away from Grayback ever ssince._"

Harry had to suppress his shudder. "_And other cassess?_"

"_Lord Potter, to my undersstanding of British wizarding law,_" Lucius' face was neutral as well as his voice, "_I am not required to prove that I am guilty. But I can asssure you, the number of people that I killed or tortured wass far lesss than what people accussed me of. For example, I am ssure that the hex that I ssent wass different from the one that took Fabian Prewett'ss life, but the battle field wass too chaotic for me to point out who did it. And I never tortured people for pleassure._"

Harry listened, and an image of a Blue Krait silently hiding in the darkness emerged in his mind: careful, calculating, patient, dangerous, and deadly. It picked its victims carefully, so that there would be less retributions afterwards. The snake didn't strike for fun, but only because the kill was necessary. Lucius' murder and torture counts might indeed be smaller than what people thought, but that was because Lucius perceived excessive violence as unnecessary and time-consuming, and he evaded the powerful enemies carefully. Harry doubted, with a few exceptions where Lucius couldn't control the situation, none of Lucius' victims had strong family members left alive to revenge for their loved ones.

"_Lord Malfoy, I undersstand the law. But I do need to know, how many did you kill?_" Harry hesitated whether he should use Draco's name again, but decided against it.

Lucius inhaled, exhaled. "_Seven to nine. The firsst posssible one wass before I joined the Death Eaterss, I wass under falsse memory charmss that time, sso I am not really ssure if I had actually killed the muggle. After becoming a Death Eater, I participated in a total of sseven raidss, killed six people in all the raidss. And I have unexpectedly encountered aurorss twice, killed one or two. I am not ssure whether it wass me who killed Gideon Prewett._"

-_Oh, wait._

"_You were under falsse memory charmss in your posssibly firsst kill?_" Harry asked in surprise.

Lucius answered reluctantly. "_The firsst killing cursse wass imposssibly hard for mosst people. My tutor memory charmed me to think that the muggle he captured killed my mother, sso that I could hate the muggle enough to usse the killing cursse. But ssince I wass memory charmed anyway, I wass not even ssure the entire sscene ever happened. And I sstill felt it extremely difficult to kill Mrss. Wibble when under Bellatrix'ss wand point, sso I probably did not kill the muggle._"

Harry fought down a chill in his spine. Whether Lucius actually killed the muggle or not, if Harry were not here to intervene, that would be a lesson that Lucius would arrange for Draco to receive, and Draco's soul/mind would be cracked because of the lesson. Harry had to keep Draco closer to protect him from THAT.

-_And seven to nine murders, only the first one might be forced or forged. _

Harry focused his attention, and hissed. "_My ssuggesstion would be fifty yearss for each account of murder. You might argue for the one you committed under the wand point of Bellatrix that your hand wass forced, but ssince you did ssign up for the Death Eaterss yoursself, it might still account for thirty yearss._"

Upon hearing the sentence suggestion of three hundred and thirty years, Lucius' face ashened. He opened his mouth, and closed again. After several seconds of hesitation, Lucius argued for himself. "_Wouldn't my contributionss to the general public be counted as a reason for shorter time?_"

Harry had always been furious toward the injustice in both muggle and magical legal systems where rich people could get a lesser sentence or even walk free, and the poor had to serve the full time. Harry hissed. "_No, gold cannot buy the law, not any more._"

Lucius' eyes flinched a bit upon Harry's wrath, but his voice was steady. "_Lord Potter, I meant my contribution in the Unbreakable Vow._"

-_Oh, that. That's actually a valid argument. Even though Lucius was forced to be the binder for the Unbreakable Vow, his magic was still vital for the Vow to stand. Even if only 0.01% of the Vow could be attributed to Lucius, the number of people Lucius potentially saved…_

Harry did a quick mental calculation: _0.01% times six billion people on earth, times the four incidences where Harry could have destroyed the world without the Vow, the number is 2.4 million. _

Harry wanted to argue further for the compulsory nature of Lucius' involvement, but Ravenclaw quickly pointed out: _hey, even though we might have tricked Lucius a bit at the time in Gringotts, if Lucius had not agreed to participate in the deal and returned all our money of his own free will, and if he didn't enforce the changes in Hogwarts and elsewhere, Voldemort would not have picked Lucius as the binder. _

Hufflepuff backed Ravenclaw up. _Lucius did treat Bones, Crouch, and Longbottom fairly after he signed the deal as far as we know. _

Gryffindor argued against them: _Lucius also went to the graveyard that night with his own free will. Our priority is to protect Draco from Lucius, so we should lock Lucius up as long as possible, and ban all communications._

_Are you sure the reason you want a long prison sentence and a ban on communication is not that YOU want to find an excuse to further manipulate Draco? I am sure Draco would want to write to his father and visit him sometimes._ Hufflepuff countered Gryffindor. _Plus, a man who has saved 2.4 million people and murdered seven doesn't deserve to be cut off from his family. Ravenclaw, multiplication backup?_

Gryffindor smirked triumphantly. _Ah ha, I knew you would argue that. In that sense, Voldemort should be a saint, since more than 99% of the Unbreakable Vow should be attributed to him. Anyone want to argue against that?_

-_Errr…_

Harry wanted to give up. His inner characters had never been quite right ever since the Azkaban breakout.

-_A smirking Gryffindor? What should Slytherin do, then?_

Slytherin suggested timely, _we should let Madam Bones sentence Lucius for three hundred and thirty years, and add some more years for things like torture, illegal animagus, money laundering, etc., only allow him to communicate with Draco with our consent, and monitor all their exchanges. This way, Lucius would alway be eager to use his mind and knowledge to our service, and we can make sure that Lucius won't have any bad influences on Draco._

_We want a FRIEND! _Hufflepuff screamed. _Not a manipulated minion._

Harry needed a pencil and paper to figure this out. And, oh, the Vow. Harry needed to ask Hermione's opinion as well.

"_Lord Malfoy, I need more time to decide. Vow requiress._"

Lucius' face turned grey when he heard "_Vow requiress_". The man's voice betrayed some nervousness that he had never shown in front of Harry before. "_Pleasse take all the time you need, Lord Potter._"

Harry nodded, opened the suitcase door behind him, and called for Severus.


	14. Chapter 14 Interlude, Draco

Chapter 14.

3:53 pm, June 24th, 1993

Short Interlude, Draco Malfoy

Draco watched as the dark-haired man sitting on the other couch drank down a bottle of Invigoration Draught. Draco wasn't quite sure what he was supposed to feel toward Severus.

The Severus Snape that Draco knew didn't seem like a man that Father would be close to. All Father's close friends such as Mr. Macnair and Mr. Avery that Draco knew of were cunning and decent purebloods who could never stand a stain on their exquisite robes. Severus was cunning and powerful for sure, but he was a half-blood, his mother was a laughstock among purebloods, and he himself didn't respect any social etiquette, either - he didn't even clean his hair and robes properly. However, Father and Severus were indeed allies for many years, maybe it was because they both spoke Parseltongue so that they couldn't tell direct lies to each other.

And then, Severus REVIVED Father. Even in the tragic plays, people tried to resurrect lost lovers, not dead allies or friends. Draco could hardly describe his gratitude and shock toward Severus' great deed.

Today, Father told Draco that he suspected Severus was emotionally hungry, so if you treated him with true friendship and goodwill, that man would return your favor hundreds folds. Father had recognized life debts owned by House Malfoy toward Severus, and proclaimed Severus as his brother in all but blood. Draco was told that he should treat Severus so. Draco had no problem recognizing the life debts, but to treat the unkempt potioneer as a real uncle, that would still take some adjustment.

Then Father also told Draco that he had invited Severus to be his godfather. Draco was so astonished that he almost checked if Father was an imposter. Draco knew Father really believed in pureblood supremacy. How could Father possibly invited a half-blood to be a Malfoy godfather? Father quickly assured Draco that since he was going to reach his magical majority within the next week, Severus wouldn't have any legal power over Draco, but Severus would protect Draco with his life anyway.

-_OK, that is definitely Father._

And there came this man sitting in front of Draco, freely offering information that would help Draco redeem Slytherin, even the lot that Draco had deemed as hopeless. "Miss Parkinson might not be sharp, nor kind, but the Parkinsons have a reputation to be obedient to their head of house. A young Mr. Parkinson will enter Hogwarts this September. I have seen the boy once or twice, he might not be beyond redemption. Miss Parkinson would probably follow the next Head of Parkinson House's suit with some nudge in the right direction."

Draco duly nodded, and listed the young Mr. Parkinson as one of the persons he needed to talk to in the beginning of next semester.

Maybe Draco had spent too much time with Harry and Hermione, he started to feel that the way Father tried to use Severus wasn't really fair for the black-haired man. If he were to become Draco's godfather, Draco needed to treat him fairly, and it was not exactly the way that Father considered fair.

-_OK, Severus is keen on redeeming Slytherin as well, so maybe I should work our relationships up from here. And I do need to send him better robes, toothpaste, and shampoos. Hopefully, Severus won't murder his new godson for sending him shampoo, will he?_

Just as Draco was pondering if he could cut down cost somewhere so that he could buy Severus a house elf that was ridiculously expensive these days, the door of the suitcase opened, and Harry stepped out.

Severus quickly stood up from his couch, and glanced at Father on the bottom of the suitcase. Draco also stood up, and Father seemed to be OK.

Severus then turned to Harry. "Mr. Potter, I need to talk to you in private as well. And in the meanwhile, I wonder if Narcissa could be here. She is a strong witch who is good at healing spells."

Draco looked at Harry expectantly, and some warmth toward Severus also rose from heart. Draco knew the time that his whole family were allowed to be together was quite limited, but he'd better not offend Harry by nagging. And Severus had just asked a difficult question that Draco wasn't sure how to ask.

Severus' request seemed to surprise Harry a bit, but the Boy-Who-Lived soon agreed to let Mother come here as well.


	15. Chapter 15 Private Meeting, Severus

Chapter 15.

4:02 pm, June 24th, 1993

Second Private Meeting, Severus Snape

Harry sat on his personal couch - which did not look anywhere near a throne, just a regular muggle single person couch colored in Ravenclaw blue - and watched as Severus closed the suitcase door for the three Malfoys inside. When the ex-Potions master started to apply privacy spells toward the suitcase, Harry couldn't help but to ask, "Professor Snape, I didn't know that you are such good friends with the Malfoys."

Severus finished his spells, then turned to Harry and hissed. "_I v-will sspeak truth in human lan-language. Too dif-ficult._"

Harry nodded. That was a good idea for communication.

Severus took a seat on the couch across from Harry on the other side of a small table, and said. "As for your information, I wasn't this close with the Malfoys before. And that is one of the things that I need to tell you today."

Then Severus began to recount everything happened after he woke up from Voldemort's Hyakuju montauk curse. "After the pain on my Dark Mark woke me up from the hallucination and then subdued, I realized that the Dark Lord must have temporarily returned and was vanquished again. I initially wanted to contact Albus by my patronus to see if he needed any help, yet I found my patronus couldn't find him. I wanted to contact you, then I realized that I shouldn't try, because that might create a paradox if I wanted to go back in time to help you. Then I heard the explosion sound coming from the Forbidden Forest, and guessed that your hand might be involved. I decided to turn back an hour and check what happened in the Forbidden Forest, and to see if I could help. In order to facilitate my search in the forest, mostly against magical concealments, I -" The ex-Potions master cleared his throat and stared down hard at Harry. "I turned into my animagus form, and used my echolocation system to detect any discrepancies between visual and auditory images."

Harry used a whole second to understand what Severus really meant by "echolocation system" and "auditory images", then he had to use his perfect occlumency barrier to fight down his hysterical laughter, because, well, judging from Severus' stare, he might murder the Boy-Who-Lived right here and right now if Harry dared to laugh out loud.

-_The resident bat in the dungeon is actually a BAT animagus!_

Harry knew it was wrong to laugh at people's animagus form, which mostly reflected one's nature, but this was simply too hilarious, even his Hufflepuff side was laughing with tears.

When Harry finally managed to stop the laughing self behind the occlumency barrier, Severus already began to describe his unbelievable joy upon seeing the reconstruction of the Dark Lord's body with only blood and Hermione's body with only flesh. "It was then that I finally realized why both purebloods and muggles have the same custom as to preserve the deceased's hair, only that wizards would use magic to do the job better. It must be some reminiscent ritual from an era where resurection was quite common, and people could be revived with only a part of their body preserved. And luckily, I have your mother's hair preserved, as well as my own mother's."

Harry's heart sank. He had hoped against hope that Severus had stolen Lily's body or her head, and magically preserved it over the years. But no, it was only Lily's hair, which had no brain and no mind. Tears began to well up in Harry's eyes, and his lips quivered as he barely managed to speak. "Professor Snape, it doesn't, it doesn't actually work like that. You have to keep their brain cold immediately after their death, preserve the brain, and work from there."

Severus looked at Harry as if in shock. The man's voice lost its usual drawl, running rapidly as if searching for some alternative explanation. "But no, it, it - the Dark Lord only used his preserved blood to construct his own body. It doesn't need the brain."

"The, the Dark Lord had horcruxes, he used h-horcruxes to preserve his mind beyond death." Harry choked a bit. "And you, you saved Lucius' head, right?"

"I, I -" Severus looked at Harry in dawning horror, as if hope and happiness were crushed into dust in his black eyes, but the ex-Potions master hadn't given up yet. "If, if a single hair is enough for the polyjuice potion to shape a new body, including the head, why a hair is not enough for the ritual to reconstruct a new brain?"

Harry had to fight back his tears, and tried to control his voice. "I know polyjuice potion, the drinkers still think like themselves even they looked exactly like whoever the hair is from. I doubt the potion only reshapes the body, not the brain."

"You don't KNOW that!" The dark-haired potioneer spat. "An adult can polyjuice into a child, a man into a woman, and vice versa. Their brain sizes are surely different."

Harry then remembered that time when Severus drank polyjuice potion and changed into Harry. Hope and Rationalization began to argue inside Harry.

-_What Severus said is true, we don't KNOW it, we just made an assumption and jumped to conclusion._

-_But the probability is high. All a human being _**is**_is the brain, anything else can be repaired by magic. Otherwise, you would have to use something like the horcruxes. How could a hair possibly store all the memories and thoughts?_

Blinking hard, Harry spoke against the screaming rationalist inside him. "Professor Snape, do you have evidence whether the brain changes into the hair donor after drinking polyjuice potion? Like a CT scan or something."

Severus frowned. "Muggle electronics do not work well around magic, Mr. Potter. I suspect if I get a CT scan, the machine won't produce any useful result. And I wouldn't advise you to put polyjuice potion into the mouths of muggles, because potions harmless to wizards can usually be lethal to muggles or even squibs. - Wait, I guess someone may already know the answer." Severus' words stopped here, and his eyes unreadable.

Harry had a sense that he shouldn't ask, but his Hope and Ravenclaw sides made him ask. "Who?"

Severus's lips twitched a bit before he answered in a flat tone. "Lord Grindelwald, his researchers, and perhaps some Americans and Russians after Dumbledore won the duel."

That answer sent a chill down Harry's spine.

-_Actually, there are other ways to inspect the differences between two brains. For example, you can feed someone with polyjuice potion, then cut open the heads of both the drinker and hair donor to see for it yourself. Or, you can force a muggle to drink a polyjuice potion with the hair of another muggle regardless of the danger of the potion, and then see it on a muggle scanning device._

Harry gulped. All of a sudden, he remembered the horrible human experiments conducted by the Germans and Japanese during World War II, and sadly, how some of the data from the experiments had benefitted scientific research later on.

-_Lord Grindelwald had allied with the Nazis. He used muggles in concentration camps to make himself invincible. Nazi muggle scientists might even helped to design experiments for him, using some scientific methods._

From a small corner of Harry's heart, Ravenclaw quietly suggested, _even though we will never do the experiments ourselves, since the results are already there, why not try and get it? We are doing this for all humanity, remember? There could be other important knowledge there as well, right?_

Severus pondered for a while, then spoke slowly. "I suppose wizards in some former Soviet states might be easier to persuade than the Russians and Americans."

Harry's Slytherin side jumped in. _Grindelwald already did the experiments, and a lot of our potential enemies already knew the experimental results. There is no advantage that we can gain by not knowing what the enemies already knew. And by knowing, we can bring back everyone much faster, including Grindelwald's victims. We have infinite gold now, and Severus seems to be willing to do the bribery job for us._

It was fair to say that though Hufflepuff was screaming and Gryffindor was in righteous fury, Harry's Rationality side was quite tempted by the proposal. But again, Harry needed to ask Hermione's opinion. "Professor Snape, I need to take some time and think about it."

Severus hesitated, then nodded. "Fair -" The man suddenly stopped, then smiled with confidence and triumph. "Mr. Potter, I am afraid we have argued over a point that is irrelevant to the revival ritual. Although whether soul exists is up for debate, magical scholars all agree that wizards' thinking process can definitely continue without their original brain, or be discontinued with their brain intact. Animagi can think and act according to their own will inside the bodies of animals, where the brain sizes can vary greatly. Some wizards can even turn into something as small as a beetle. Whatever is there in the head of the beetle, it is not the original brain. But I do admit that the form of animal one adapted does have certain effects on one's primitive needs such as food preference. Moreover, it is widely known that dementor's kiss can suck one's soul out - or end their thinking process, depending on how to want to describe it - without any damage to the victim's physical existence. Therefore, I suspect the well-preserved brain may not play the central role for revival as you assumed."

Harry opened his mouth, then closed it again. He had to admit he had never pondered the relationship between mind and brain for wizards, and he didn't have enough time to read books written by magical scholars. The existence of animagi did suggest that the original brain was not a necessary condition for wizards to think; as for the dementor's kiss, Harry assumed no wizards - that was, perhaps besides Grindelwald's researchers - had cut open an victim's brain to see if some brain damage did occur, so it was inconclusive. Professor Quirrell did say that he craved a live mouse for food after being a snake, and he also said one could never quite disentangle the mind from the body it wore.

-_But still, there is a big logic gap between an animagus' ability to think and the lack of necessity for a preserved brain in the ritual. Maybe I will teach Severus the scientific methods later._

Harry wanted to point this out to Severus, but the problem was, some part of Harry really wanted to agree with Severus. Harry looked at the smirking man, and sighed. "Professor Snape, the fact that wizards don't need their original brain to think when they are alive doesn't mean you don't need their original brain to make them think again without a horcrux. Plus, I guess even it was possible, the amount of magic required to reconstruct all the memory and thoughts someone had at the point of death must be massive, and I don't think the magic used in the ritual would suffice."

Severus first seemed to want to refute, but after he heard the last part, smirk slowly disappeared from his face. Harry could see the man's face turned grey, sorrow and remorse occupied the dark eyes, his shoulders slacked, and his back hunched a bit. The part of Harry that hoped Severus would offer some valid counter argument was squashed.

-_I need to figure out how to retrieve the deceased's' memory and thoughts, or I need to tear apart reality and Time, whichever is easier. _

"But reconstructing one's body is definitely a first step." Harry didn't want the man to destroy Lily and his own mother's hair in frustration and desperation, so he had to say this much.

Severus nodded gravely. After a while, the dark-haired man slowly resumed his composure, and continued his recount of that night. "Mr. Potter, I suppose, you know what happened later better than I do, since I only heard fragments of the conversation, the echolocation system didn't provide high quality images, and my eyes couldn't see much except false regular woods set up by the Dark Lord himself. However, the brightness of your patronus that you used to bring back Miss Granger was quite unique, I could see it with my poor eyes even through the magical concealments. But I do have a question concerning that, besides a little bit of life and magic, did you sacrifice the corporeal form of your patronus as well? Mine lost its corporeal form, but became really bright afterwards. Or am I not to know?"

Initially, Harry didn't know what Severus was talking about, then he realized: Severus must have upgraded his patronus from a Version 1.0 animal corporeal patronus to a Version 1.5 death-repellent non-corporeal patronus in the revival of Lucius without quite knowing why. Harry had told the secrets of the true patronus to Hermione, so she could use her true patronus to kill all the dementors in Azkaban. Judging from the fact that Severus already got a Version 1.5 patronus by accident, Harry didn't doubt that the man could perform a true patronus if Harry told him the secret. Harry hesitated before he replied. "There is some tricks about that. I suppose you can still use your patronus to communicate and everything, right?"

Severus nodded. "True. I think my patronus is even more powerful than before, and I feel it can easily drive dementors miles away, though it's hard to find a dementor and do the test these days. -Oh, is that how you destroyed the dementor brought to Hogwarts, and how Miss Granger destroyed the herd in Azkaban?"

-_Well, Severus Snape is smart._

Severus pondered and said. "I suppose that's some riddle I need to solve for myself, but it's good to know that dementors and lethifolds are less of a threat to me."

"Also, though I guess it would be a poor comparison, did you become more friendly and more protective toward Miss Granger after you revived her in the ritual?" Severus frowned. "Or, is it because Lucius recognized multiple life debts to me regardless of the status of Snape family? I heard there is some old magic involved in life debts, that some sort of magical bond might be formed in the process. Or, is that simple human psychology that led to my growing care for Lucius, after I revived him and saved him a couple dozens of times? "

-_Err…_

Harry had no answer to that question. He was indeed more protective toward Hermione after she was revived, but that could be simple human psychology. And come to think of it, Hermione did owe him a life debt, and the part of ritual where Harry needed to put his life and magic into the patronus might have some effects as well.

"To be precise, I think I might have lost the will to kill Lucius." Severus sighed. "I wouldn't want to kill him before, but I think I could use the killing curse on Lucius if necessary. Now, I don't think I can kill him, at least not with the killing curse."

Harry could never use the killing curse on Hermione in the first place, so he had no idea whether it was the ritual at work, or Severus just became a better person, or Severus cared more about Lucius or about humanity in general.

Slytherin quietly suggested. _That's a big side effect. If we want to use Severus as an assassin, we can't let him revive too many people. And we shouldn't revive too many people ourselves, either._

All the other parts of Harry screamed _SHUT UP_.

Harry decided to answer honestly. "Professor Snape, I already cared Hermione a lot before that day, so I have no idea."

"I would expect so." Severus nodded, and continued with his story of that night. "I have to say that I was quite shocked when I heard that you might destroy the world according to a Prophecy, and somewhat relieved when the Dark Lord forced you to take the Unbreakable Vow. Then later, as I heard you threatened the Dark Lord with massive explosion, I was almost scared to death. I thought you had a miniaturized nuclear weapon, or something with similar effects, and you might start a world-wide nuclear war."

Harry wanted to correct Severus' misconception about nuclear weapons, and decided against it. Harry had estimated in that night that there was no way an explosion caused by antimatter could be misinterpreted as a nuclear attack. And modern nuclear weapons and missiles had too many electronics in them that they couldn't possibly work properly around magic. But it wouldn't do Harry much good to deny it right away. On the other hand, Severus was a half-blood, he might read muggle books himself later.

Severus' dark eyes searched Harry's blank face, and continued. "I tried to fly into the graveyard to stop you, but I was stopped by Time. Obviously, the Dark Lord had set up some barrier to prohibit the graveyard's future to interact with its past. Then you struck all the Death Eaters and the Dark Lord with some magic that I still do not understand today, and you brought down the Dark Lord with some magical resonance between the two of you. The Time barrier disappeared as the Dark Lord lost consciousness. I fell to the ground as the pain from the Dark Mark almost made me pass out. Then," The ex-Death Eater's voice became less steady. "I saw Lucius' head right beside me. He wasn't really my friend back then, but he was someone that I could trust slightly above average, for the reason that you might have already guessed. I used cooling charms on his head, and the heads and partial heads of several others."

Harry was quite relieved when he heard this part. At least, the thirty-six accounts of life that Harry himself took could be easily brought back, or could it? "So you collected all the heads? How about Macnair and Quirrell? I mean, Quirinus Quirrell was innocent, he was just occupied by the Dark Lord. And Macnair tried to fight the Dark Lord."

Severus' eyes widened a little upon Harry's question, but answered smoothly, "I only have the ones that I didn't resent too much. I have Macnair's thumb, Quirrell's whole body, heads of Dolohov, Crabbe, Goyle, Rosier, Yaxley and Nott, and half heads of Mulciber and Sr. and Jr. Avery."

Harry was a little disappointed for this answer. However, eleven transfigured bodies plus one living Lucius, that was still better than none.

Severus expanded his answer. "And if you must know, I also have bodies of several muggles in my collection, but I am afraid all of them were brain-dead long before I got them, since the majority of them were nameless frozen bodies in muggle police morgues."

Ignoring the angry stares from all other parts for his previous suggestion, Slytherin had a good idea. _Cunning people all have false identities ready at hand, we should do so as well. As Lucius indicated, it could be quite a lot of work, we'd better start soon. Ask Minerva to add an extra name on the list now and then, and ask Severus or Mad-Eye to look for nameless bodies in muggle morgues whose identity you can take. _

But the construction of false identities could wait. "I assume you took the instruction the Dark Lord gave me, and made a copy?"

Severus nodded, and described how his time-turned self reminded him what to do; how he waited in the bathroom, swapped Harry's pouch, and took the Stone while Harry was changing; and how he used the duplication charm and the Stone to make duplicates of the instruction and the bodies. When time wasn't enough, he turned back another hour to make more transfigurations permanent, and finally duplicated the Stone itself. To the last part, Severus added in frustration, "Obviously, the power of the Stone is not something that could be transmitted so easily. I have tried it on several objects, a cat, and a dog, there was no problem before I used it in the ritual. However, the body of Lucius still came out the way it is now. The duplicate stone could stabilize Lucius for six to seven hours at the first time, then it became five hours, then four. Now, it is mostly my magic that is sustaining Lucius' life."

Harry's brain quickly generated several experiments to test the power level and the decay curve of the duplicated Stone, and that of duplicates of duplicates. And after some extrapolation, Harry might be able to estimate the power level of the original Stone, unless the extrapolation didn't work for the original Stone. Harry had been sort of worried over whether the Stone might slowly lose its power over intensive usage. Harry had read some theory on the Gemeo charm that the decay rate of duplicated object was dependent on the power of magic put into the charm and the size of the object. Severus was an exceptional potioneer, that meant he had excellent control of magic at all times, therefore, he might be a very good experimenter for this test - and a lot of other experiments that Harry and Hermione couldn't do yet.

Both Slytherin and Ravenclaw started to regret his decision to let Severus go freely one year ago, but Hufflepuff and Gryffindor shouted them down. Then Harry had an idea that he needed to test. "Professor Snape, can I have the duplicated Stone? I may need to study its properties."

Severus reached into his pouch, and handed Harry a red glass that looked quite similar to the original Stone, but the color was a little dull. "I just used it to stabilize Lucius before we came here. The power might return after six or more hours."

Harry put the duplicate into his regular pocket. "Thank you. I will test it later then. Please go on."

"As for my days in the past year, there is little that needs to be said. No magical law was broken except the usage of false identities and being an illegal animagus." Severus' voice took on a tone of sarcasm and grievance. " I guess reviving a dead Death Eater is rare enough that there is no law against that." He sighed. "I had been proud of myself for completing the ritual, but I never realized what I have done to the world until Lucius pointed it out to my face."

This part, Harry understood quite well now. Everyone in the world would want to know the secrets of revival, and who knew who they might choose to revive? Voldemort wasn't the only dark wizard who made horcruxes. Maybe some good people have destroyed fathers' bones of some dark lords, and rendered them unable to return. And this ritual could work in the dark lords' favor. What if some of the dark lords were so insane that they wanted to destroy the world? That was downright disaster.

Remorse was obvious in Severus' eyes and voice. "I should have thought of it, everyone would want to grab the power. And the potential enemies who wanted the Stone might have a much easier time in convincing their minions to risk their lives in the endeavor, since if they were successful, any lives lost in the attack could be restored."

-_Oh, that as well. I need to spend some more time in my dark side to think about more avenues how revival could be dangerous._

There was a problem with that, Harry figured that by thinking about how the world could be destroyed, or just spending too much time in the dark side, he might increase his chances of causing the end of the world. Harry needed to ask for Hermione's opinion.

"In my blindness in the pursuit of power, and in my laughable ambition to walk the walks of Albus Dumbledore among others, I have neglected my duty in the Order as the dark wizard." Severus looked highly uncomfortable, somewhat reminding Harry of a student awaiting for reprimand from a teacher. "I should have stayed, and spent my time thinking like a dark wizard so that I could anticipate what they might do."

Harry didn't think there was anything wrong for Severus to try to become an extra powerful lord, as long as he didn't hurt anyone on his path. And Harry thought it would be bad for Severus to brew himself in the dark wizard mode for too long.

-_And that was what Dumbledore made Severus and perhaps Mad-Eye do, or maybe these two just volunteered themselves. No wonder Severus was that snarky and Mad-Eye was that paranoid. Good people shouldn't be forced to do that._

There was a dull pain in Harry's heart, even if he knew it was necessary and right, even if he knew the personal happiness of two wizards was nothing as comparing to the number of lives they had already saved and might save in the future.

_Don't forget we have a dark wizard and a bad person at our service for the next several hundred years._ Slytherin suggested. _We don't need to worry about Lucius going darker. Though we'd better let Severus and Mad-Eye check on the ideas proposed by Lucius._

Harry's face adapted some of the sternness of Albus Dumbledore, then softened. "Professor Snape, I don't want to let you spend too much time in the dark mode, but do you have any more ideas how the whole affair could be dangerous?"

Severus answered without hesitation. "If people know that even duplicated Stones can sustain transfiguration for up to a year, instead of using them to stabilize dying people so that they can be transport to the Hospital, they may use the duplicated Stones to sustain weapons. I heard the maintenance of nuclear weapons can be quite expensive so that a number of nations are considering to cut the stock of such weapons, but they are also worried that they may not have enough weapons when needed. As far as I know, the highest offices in most countries already knew about magic, and some might think to have contracts with powerful wizards, so that they can multiply their weapon stock as needed, and keep it there for a while with the duplicated Stones. I know that a lot of modern weapons with fancy electronics don't work well around magic, but I don't think the earlier models, such as those used by the Americans on the Japanese, could possibly contain too much electronics. Well, on the other hand, from what I heard about Chernobyl, nuclear things that do not work may cause more damage than those ones that work."

Harry almost gulped. That was an idea he had thought of before. It seemed Harry was not that unique. "How long did it take you to think of it?"

"One day when I was sleep deprived and magically exhausted, in the middle of trying to keep Lucius alive." Severus sighed. "I can certainly generate more if I get some rest."

-_Well, it only took us a second. Regular smart people are not THAT creative._

Harry wasn't sure if he could take this as a comfort. There was also a question that Harry had to ask. "And how many wizards know about nuclear weapons or something like that?" Harry deliberately avoided the word "physics".

"Everyone who has spent enough time when their TV sets or radios are tuned to the news channel during the past fifty years. We have just ended a Cold War, Mr. Potter. Even the drug addicts in the ghetto where I grew up used 'the Soviets may nuke us all tomorrow' as an excuse for their behavior." Tiredness and frustration were in the silky voice of the half-blood wizard. "About five to six percent of the students in Hogwarts have non-magical parentage or upbringing, and I would assume the number to be similar for other countries. Therefore, about fifty to sixty thousand in total."

-_And you don't need to be Harry or Voldemort to think of that. You just need to be Severus Snape._

Severus' face began to show desperation. "And in the thirty or so powerful lords in the world who are almost in par with Albus Dumbledore, at least two are known to have non-magical parentage, more might hide their family history. There are also lords like Grindelwald. I can hardly imagine Lord Grindelwald doesn't know how his muggle Japanese allies failed."

By this point, Harry was quite amazed that the world was still largely intact. Harry almost wanted to set up a Interdict of Harry now, so that no magic could be used around nuclear reactions or any fundamental particles in general. But no, Harry still needed to figure out how to use stars as fuels and how to conquer the galaxies.

-_And I need to remind Auror Kingsley Shacklebolt that he should never give any good ideas to the muggle prime minister whom he is protecting._

That wasn't the end of Severus' words. "The worse thing is, among the several hundred to several thousand muggles in the highest offices who know about magic, a lot of them are reasonably intelligent, and some might even be creative. And according to some city legends in the United States, during the Cold War, both the American and the Russian muggles had used muggleborns in various experiments, and some wizards in the United States and Soviet Union might have participated. Considering the number of new spells crafted and the number of powerful lords emerged during the Cold War in those two countries, that could be true."

Harry felt sick. Harry had read about it somewhere that the United States government had deliberately spread syphillis and other sexual transmitted diseases in Guatemala in the 1940s, and in rural Alabama in black neighborhoods the 1970s, to test the epidemiology of such diseases. Therefore, there was no reason to believe that Germans or Japanese were particularly cruel, nor to believe Grindelwald's research was that unique. The British wizarding nobilities wanted to kill all muggleborns, elites in some other countries just found better uses for muggleborns, minorities, and citizens of some unimportant third world countries. Harry needed to optimize the world sooner.

The sternness and determination on Harry's face might have unnerved Severus, for the man quickly said, "I am sorry to disturb your thought so. I wonder if there is anything I could do."

Harry shook his head. It was Harry who had been too naive, and it was Harry who had deliberately avoided to think of such cruel things. Harry inhaled, and exhaled. "Professor Snape, thank you for letting me know. It's not decided yet, but would you mind to go on a trip to, say, Ukraine? You don't need to worry about cost or anything like that."

Severus composed himself from the previous desperation, and from his fear for the Boy-Who-Lived who scarily resembled Albus Dumbledore in his wrath. Severus bared his teeth with a bit of smirk. "My pleasure."

Harry realized Severus must have made himself quite a lot of gold and silver with the Stone, as a cunning Slytherin should.

Then, Severus looked a bit hesitant.

"What?" Harry didn't want to force Severus to do things that he didn't want to do.

Severus sighed. "Lucius is an expert in bribery and corrupting government officials."

-_Oh, right, he cares about Lucius. I should really be careful about when and who to revive whom. For example, I can't let Mad-Eye revive people he might need to hunt down later. By the way, should I use Lucius on so many important matters?_

Harry hesitated, and said, "I need to think about it."

"Then, I guess I have already received the answer to another question, but I have to ask. Lucius has invited me to be Draco's godfather. Lord Potter, according to your opinion, I should refuse it, right? " Severus said with some reluctance.

Harry noticed that Severus had just called him "Lord Potter", and the man seemed quite ready to serve another lord even if something the new lord desired was different from what he himself desired. Plus, Severus completely misunderstood what the previous hesitation was about. Harry was all about giving Draco more protection now after he talked with Lucius. "Oh, Professor Snape, of course you can become Draco's godfather if you want to. I am really happy for Draco and you."

Severus' eyes were perplexed for a while, then he said, "Thank you."

"And please call me Harry, or Mr. Potter, or Mr. Potter-Evans-Verres. Lord Potter is only reserved for very formal occasions." Harry added. He was OK being called as Lord Potter by Lucius, and Harry could act accordingly; but being called that by the ex-Potions master, or Professor Flitwick, or Professor Sprout? That was just bizarre. Plus, Harry needed to stay away from the image of "Dark Lord Harry".

Severus seemed to have worked up some courage from Harry's statements. "Mr. Potter, there is a matter that I may need to remind you to be more careful next time. It is about your theory on magical inheritance. Lucius had told me about what he heard from Draco when Draco was under Veritaserum. It seemed like you considered it a Mendelian inheritance of one single pair of gene. I happen to know some basics of the muggle genetic theory. According to your theory, a magical parent and a muggle parent can only give birth to a squib, and no squibs should be borned to wizarding families. According to what I know, my father was a muggle, or at least, he could be driven away by a muggle-repelling charm that I could master without a wand in my fifth year in Hogwarts."

Harry opened his mouth. He hadn't revisited his theory after the hasty session with Draco. He didn't even collect data for all types of couples, let alone trying to disprove his own theory. For such an important question, one hour with shreds of paper was obviously not enough. And according to Harry's theory, it was either that Severus had a mutation in the magical gene, or he was adopted, or his mother cheated, with much higher probabilities for the later two than the first one. "Professor Snape, I didn't mean to -"

"Personally, it is not a big insult to me, I didn't like my father anyway. However, I guess you have gathered why topics like this should be treated with more care. Draco was not an occlumens back then. Imagine what would happen if some 'good' fools accessed Draco's mind before Lucius did, and they might make this theory public for some greater good." A hint of sarcasm was in Severus' voice. "Either that you are right, and you will offend a lot of half-bloods who could be on your side, including Minerva, Trelawney and our new DADA teacher Lupin in the faculties, and Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas in your year alone; or you are wrong, and you will lose much credibility on other matters."

Harry nodded, and thanked Severus sincerely. "Professor Snape, thank you so much for telling me. You are right, I need to be more careful, and I will definitely reinvestigate my theory."

_And that is our reward for not being a Dark Lord. _Hufflepuff commented happily. _Severus will never think to correct Voldemort's assumptions or to warn him to be more careful. As a result, Voldemort never knew two of his foremost Death Eaters could understand his hisses. _

Ravenclaw echoed. _Yeah, I also wonder how many other things Voldemort was wrong and nobody told him. And, come to think of it, Voldemort just withheld so much information from his followers that not even Bellatrix knew where he hid one of his many horcruxes. Otherwise, Bellatrix would have revived him years ago. By the way, we really need to revisit all our previous assumptions, discuss them with Hermione and/or Draco, discuss with Severus and Mad-Eye if necessary, and make a serious effort to disprove them. According to the number of names Severus just listed, it is possible that we already made a mistake. Not only the half-blood that Severus mentioned, if what Voldemort said in front of the SPHEW witches were true, he thought his father was a muggle as well._

The inner critic offered an alternative explanation. _Or maybe none of the half-bloods know or tell others that their non-magical parents are actually squibs. _

"Professor Snape, please do tell me everything that I might be wrong in the future." Harry said with all his sincerity. "And, umm, I have some books you can read after you get some rest. I can't imagine what you would be like with the books."

-_At least, my book choices for Draco in his first year were no secrets now. So I'd better appear to be generous._

Severus slightly tilted his head.

Note:

Some basic inheritance data that Harry should collect before he could draw his conclusion on the AA-Aa-aa genetics:

1\. The percentage of different phenotypes of children born to magical (AA) and muggle (aa) couples, which should be 100% squibs (Aa).

2\. The percentage of different phenotypes of children born to magical (AA) and squib (Aa) couples. The result should be approximately 50% of magical children and 50% of squibs.

3\. The percentage of different phenotypes of children born to squib (Aa) couples. The result should be approximately 25% of magical children (AA), 50% of squibs (Aa), and 25% muggles (aa).

4\. The percentage of different phenotypes of children born to magical (AA) couples, which should be 100% magical (AA).

5\. The percentage of different phenotypes of children born to squib (Aa) and muggle (aa) couples, which should be 50% squibs and 50% muggles.

6\. To be precise, Harry also need to collect data to see the percentage of squib/muggle children born to muggleborn, half-blood, and pureblood couples.

Harry only collected less than 20% of the basic data he needed from a very small sampling pool, and he jumped to the conclusion that suited his taste. Plus, Harry didn't know the possibility that some of the squib parents in his sampling pool could actually be magical, and their magic was suppressed for some reason. Ariana Dumbledore and Merope Gaunt had both been considered as squibs by some others, but they were both witches. Any scientific journal should reject Harry's paper within 10 minutes.

The next update will be 6 pm (EDT), 04/11/2015.


	16. Chapter 16 Interlude - Draco

Chapter 16.

5:21 pm, June 24th, 1993

Interlude, Draco Malfoy

Draco cherished every second that he could spend with both his parents, he really did. But this was a rather awkward moment that Draco wanted to run away from.

"So you have been seeing Miss Padma Patil privately for several times?" Father smiled while petting Draco's coiling snake patronus on his lap. "I have seen her fighting beside you, a cunning and powerful witch indeed."

Mother grabbed Draco's hand. "Oh, Draco my dear, why don't you tell me earlier? I was thinking about the two Greengrass girls, but your opinion is the decisive one. You should invite Miss Patil home sometimes."

-_Ahh…_

"Cissy, I have looked up Miss Patil's lineage since I knew she was Draco's lieutenant," Father patted Draco's shoulder approvingly, and then reached for Mother's hand. "All magical up to her grandparents. I need to write more letters to my contacts in India for further information."

-_Err, Father looked up Padma's family history when I was in my first year? Father, you don't need to be that prepared._

"Draco, by the way, do you know her caste? I heard Brahmins are priests in India, therefore more likely to be wizards, or of higher social status." Father asked another question that Draco didn't know how to answer.

By this point, Draco just wanted to hide his face in his hands: _Father, I know you are a pureblood supremacist, I didn't know you are a supremacist in other accounts as well. Oh, Merlin. This IS Father. What can I do?_

Just as Mother asked, and Father explained what the caste system was, and why Patil was such a common last name that Father's contacts in India couldn't decide her caste just from her surname, the suitcase door was opened.

Draco was both disappointed and guiltily relieved to see Severus by the door. The dark-haired man appeared both tired and happy. "Lucius, I think I will accept your invitation now."

"Oh, Severus, my brother and best friend," Father stood up and walked toward Severus with open arms. "We are really going to be family now."

Mother was a bit confused. She asked Draco with a whisper, "What invitation?"

Father's footsteps stopped, his arm in mid-air, and he answered with a bit of awkwardness in his voice, "Cissy, I - I haven't have a chance to tell you, I invited Severus to be Draco's godfather."

The dark-haired man walking down the stairs became quite awkward as well. "Mrs. Malfoy, if -"

"Oh, my dear Severus," Mother smiled at Severus while sending a glare toward Father, "Draco will be so lucky as to have you as his godfather."

From Harry's training, Draco knew the reason that Father never asked Mother's opinion on such familial matters was not that Father didn't respect Mother or something like that. It was because Mother hadn't been in Father's decision-making system for eleven years, and human beings simply did not update their decision patterns that quickly. However, Draco was not sure how Mother would take this.

Father cleared his throat, showed Severus the couch and said, "Severus, why don't we do it now? I can draft the paperwork, and -" Father looked up at Harry, who was now standing outside of the suitcase door, "Lord Potter, would you like to be one of the witnesses?"

"Yes, I would be happy to." Harry answered cheerfully. "By the way, how many witnesses do you need?"

"Two." Father answered.

"Hermione will be here in a moment." Harry eyed Father pointedly.

Father tilted his head graciously. "It would be a great honor for House Malfoy to have Lady Granger as the second witness."

"Then I will talk with Hermione first, so she won't be too surprised to see you." Harry said. "And Professor Snape, I will need you to lift the seal of the room and reseal it again when Hermione comes. Now I will leave you four here for a private moment."

"It is so considerate of you, Lord Potter." Father said politely.

As the suitcase door was closed from outside, Father began to draft paperwork, Mother offered Severus tea, and asked lightly, "Severus, as Draco's godfather, your opinion will be highly valued in the topic we were at before you came in. Do you happen to have any recollections on Miss Padma Patil?"

-_Ahherrr… Can we discuss the end of the world or something like that?_

The next chapter will be up at 6 pm (EDT), 04/12/2015.


	17. Chapter 17 Tests

Chapter 17.

5:32 pm, June 24th, 1993

Tests

Harry watched as Severus reapplied the charm that banned anyone from coming into the room, contemplating the tests yet to run.

In the meanwhile, Hermione seemed to be a little unsure about how to face the man who had humiliated her horribly in public, according to some grand plan designed by Dumbledore; yet helped her SPHEW cause secretly without anyone knowing about it. "Good afternoon, Professor Snape. How was your trip?"

Severus finished casting the spells, and turned around to face Harry and Hermione. "Miss Granger, my trip entailed a long story that Mr. Potter may prefer to explain to you in private. Before I leave you two for your discussion, I need to say that with Albus' order or not, I have not treated you fairly, and my actions have caused you great distress. One year ago, in my haste to pursue power beyond my own limit, I have neglected to apologize to you. I apologize to you now."

To be honest, Harry didn't quite expect that from the ex-Potions master.

\- _Is Severus doing this because he had become a better man? Or, is it because the man is ready to serve a benign Light Lord, so that he wants to repair his relationships with the Lord's most trusted advisor? _

Hufflepuff preferred the first reason, while Slytherin argued that since Severus was a true Slytherin, it was probably the more cynical answer. Either way, this seemed to be a good thing if Harry needed Severus for his plots later.

Needless to say, Hermione stared at Severus in open shock. When she managed to speak, her voice was a little flustered. "I mean, err, Harry has told that you were the one who put notes under my pillow to help me fight bullies. I actually need to thank you for that. And, well, as for the other parts, I guess it's alright now since we all know why it happened."

Severus nodded, and pulled out a black suitcase from his pouch. "I will enter this suitcase and seal myself in it. Notify me when I am needed. _I sspoke truth._"

Severus smirked upon Hermione's gasp.

Before Severus put the black suitcase beside the grey one, Harry gave Hermione an explain-to-you-later look, and said, "Professor Snape, could you show your patronus to Hermione and me? Maybe we will be able to see something."

Severus' eyes flickered, then pulled out his wand. "Expecto Patronum."

A basketball-sized bright white ball jumped out of Severus' wand point. It was not nearly as bright as Harry's or Hermione's, but it is way brighter than a regular animal patronus. The white ball went in front of Hermione, and said in the ex-Potions master's smooth voice, "The sky is blue."

Hermione stared at Severus' patronus, then eyed Harry with a disapproving look.

Severus then offered, "The memory I need to use to fuel this patronus is quite peculiar. The first time I managed it, some of the memories couldn't even be counted as happy ones for most people. I needed to remember Draco's crying face, and my nausea upon seeing - Well, later I somehow have to include my grief upon hearing the deaths of people I cared about to use the charm. This is strange indeed."

Harry knew the reason, but he wasn't sure that he should tell Severus now. It was because Severus refused to accept the deaths of the ones he cared, and he wanted them to be alive. Severus needed to go one step higher, to want everyone to live forever and to absolutely refuse death to use the true patronus.

Anyway, Severus had passed one of Harry's tests.

Hermione looked at Severus with some admiration, then said. "Professor Snape, I think I know why, but I am not sure I can tell you."

"Mr. Potter said so as well, it seems I need to entangle this riddle myself." Severus' eyes centered on Hermione's sparkling fingernails. "I suppose I know some of the reasons that you could destroy several hundred dementors now."

Severus suddenly frowned, and his face became as white as plaster. "I don't know any magic that can end the unicorn power inside you, but I can't say such thing is impossible. Miss Granger, please be very careful not to lose it, otherwise the world will be in grave danger."

Hermione nodded in confusion.

Harry was a bit confused as well.

-_Ending the power of unicorn that gives Hermione tremendous life power would definitely be bad, but how can that lead to world destruction?_

"Well, I guess I need to be specific. There is some potion lore about the origin of Felix Felicis, the Liquid Luck potion. It is said that the reason that unicorn blood can sustain life for a while is that it is the strongest Felix Felicis, it will grant you so much luck that your body will heal itself against all odds and possibilities. But afterwards, the universe will work against you. From the Dark Lord's experience, I guess people cannot escape this side effect even if one changes into a new body." Severus said gravely. "And I would not suggest either of you take Felix Felicis unless absolutely necessary. Generations of potioneers had improved the potion to minimize the side effects, but I am not sure what the effect would be on Miss Granger. And in general, relying too much on Felix Felicis invariably leads to disastrous results."

Now Harry began to understand why most dying people didn't drink unicorn blood, and why people said anyone who drank the blood could only live "a cursed life, a half life". Unicorn blood and the Liquid Luck potion seemed to have some unexplained results on which timeline the Universe chose amongst all the possible timelines, but the Universe fought back hard. In a word, after drinking unicorn blood, if you wanted heads in a gamble of flipping coins, you would get all heads; but afterward, it would be all tails.

Harry had wondered how he came out to defeat Lord Voldemort against all odds, and why the smart enemy suddenly fell into the literary trap of a stupid talking villain, now Harry saw it. The Universe was working against Voldemort. Voldemort might have thought changing into a new body would end the side effect, but obviously it was not the case.

Harry imagined what he would do on the verge of death before he knew the ritual and the power of the Stone, and shuddered. Harry would do exactly the same thing Voldemort did, drank unicorn blood, and the world would be destroyed in any of the previous world-ending incidences. On the other hand, the reason that the world had not ended in the previous incidences, might exactly be that Hermione, who was blessed with all the luck of the Universe for the time being, was standing beside Harry.

Severus pondered, sighed, and retrieved two bottles of golden liquid from his pouch. "I brewed these Felix Felicis myself, much better than the things you can buy in the market. The side effect is minimized to the best of my abilities. If you two absolutely need luck, use these. I will give Draco one bottle and give him the same instructions as well. _I sspoke truth. Potionss were for m-mysself, no trick._"

Upon hearing the "_no trick_" statement, Harry knew Severus had realized he was being tested, but tests still needed to be run.

As Harry and Hermione each took a bottle of Liquid Luck from Severus, Harry said, "Professor Snape, thank you so much for your advice and the potion. Do you know any other side effects of anything else?"

"For trolls, I only know that they are really stupid and violent, much easier to deal with than the side effects of unicorn blood." Severus then hesitated a little, and hissed. "_Hor-horcruxess ssaid to be ominouss for ov… offsssp-ringss, or kids born with b-bad luck, not ssure if true._"

Harry didn't dare to look at Hermione. He didn't trust his occlumency barrier could hide the horror and the guilt in him.

-_No, no, no!_

As of the past several months, Harry began to have some romantic thoughts on Hermione. But if what Severus heard was true, Hermione should never have kids, and the birth of her child - THEIR child - might tilt the world towards destruction.

"_I do not know anyone elsse … m-made hor-horcruxess for another, v-while other not know-v-wing, though._" Severus hissed more.

Harry was a little bit assured, but the stone on his heart was still quite heavy.

-_OK, one reason NOT to make horcruxes for everyone with sacrifices of blank-brained clones. And this explains why dark wizards like Lucius may choose not to make horcruxes. A calculated cold-blooded murderer as Lucius is, he probably loves Draco more than his own life. As for Voldemort, kids are definitely not one of his concerns, or he simply didn't believe legends not to his taste. Or, maybe people fabricated this lore so that dark wizards like Lucius would not make horcruxes and live forever. _

Severus stopped, then his hisses somehow became more grave. "_I do not know effectss of v-unicorn blood on ts-childbirth, either._"

Hermione saw Harry's blank face upon hearing the hisses, and asked carefully. "Am I to know?"

Severus and Harry looked at each other. Harry's voice wavered a bit as he answered. "I need to think about it."

"OK." Hermione accepted without hesitation.

Harry's heart sank further.

-_It may not even be true. Just run your next test._

"Professor Snape, thank you so much. I will talk with Hermione for a while, and I will call you by patronus afterwards." Harry said politely, and Severus descended down his black suitcase.

After the door of the suitcase was closed, Hermione started to cast privacy spells, and then asked. "Harry, what is all that about?"

"Hmm, let's wait for a while to let Professor Snape finish his spells inside his suitcase, and let me finish mine." Ten spells later, Harry moved towards his couch. "In the meanwhile, did you bring the books I asked for?"

Hermione drew out several huge books, including _Comprehensive Wizarding Genealogy_, _Pure-Blood Directory_, and _Distinguished Surnames in History_, and put them onto the table in front of Harry's couch. "Why do need _those_ books?" Hermione asked with a tone of suspicion.

"Just checking." Harry started to flip through the pages, and easily found Salazar Slytherin's name from _Comprehensive Wizarding Genealogy_. He saw, as sort of expected, one of Salazar's granddaughters married Armand Malfoy's son, Draco Malfoy I. And about fifty years later, a Malfoy girl descended from the first Draco got married with an wizard named "Arthur the Weasel", who was the founder of the Weasley family. Harry knew he could stop looking there, because there were so many Weasleys in wizarding Britain that they were virtually related to every family.

-_Well, it seems most wizards in Britain are descendants of Salazar Slytherin anyway. This makes a lot of sense for a small society like this, that everyone is basically related to everyone. I am a third cousin of Narcissa and Bellatrix; and there was a famous potioneer with the lastname of Dagworth-Granger in the seventeenth or eighteenth century, Hermione might be related to him. Maybe it was only the Gaunt family that kept inbreeding, so only all the Gaunts were known to speak Parseltongue, and Salazar's magic was just thinned out in other families. The same way as veela-human hybrids do. The half-veelas look more veela than human, but quarter-veelas look more human, and so on. And Professor Flitwick, who has distant goblin ancestry, is mostly human except his height and squeaky voice. This also explains why Lucius can speak much better Parseltongue than Severus. Too bad that not every wizard in the world is a descendant of Salazar._

_-And that, is probably why Salazar's monster is said to be able to rid muggleborns from Hogwarts, since the muggleborns probably can't learn Parseltongue, therefore can't be taught by the most knowledgeable teacher in Hogwarts. _

"What are you checking?" Hermione read _Comprehensive Wizarding Genealogy_ upside-down, and formed a quick guess. "You thought Professor Snape is an heir of Slytherin?"

"Well, virtually most wizards in Britain are, and a lot more in Europe and the western world, I guess." Harry quickly flipped through the long list of names of the Weasley family, and pointed to the beginning, "See, the founder of the Weasley family got married with one of Salazar's great-great granddaughters, so it is easy to guess from there."

"Then why there aren't that many known Parselmouths?" Hermione asked.

"I guess it may take quite some learning for most wizards, except the extreme inbreeding Gaunt family. Professor Snape said Professor Dumbledore can speak it as well. I have always wondered why Dumbledore trusted Severus Snape, it all makes sense now." Harry answered.

"OK, should I learn Parseltongue, then?" Hermione quickly asked, eagerness in her eyes. "Or perhaps I am not a descendent of Slytherin. I guess maybe Draco should as well."

"You can learn if you want to, we just need to dig your family history a bit. And I think Draco will learn it from his new godfather and others anyway." Harry said to his wide-eyed friend. "Yeah, as you may have guessed, Professor Snape is going to be Draco's godfather, and would you be one of the witnesses for the legal process?"

Hermione nodded, confusion in her eyes. "Of course. But why didn't they do it one year ago, after, you know?"

"Well, that's quite related to what I am about to tell you." Harry sat down on his couch. "Before that, I just have one more test to run. Hermione, could you use your patronus to find the Dark Lord, and, say, Nott Sr., then Bellatrix Black, and tell them the good news that when we bring them back, we will make them better people."

Hermione looked at Harry with suspicion. "You know the Dark Lord is transfigured, and Nott Sr. is dead, right? But anyway, Expecto Patronum."

Hermione's bright patronus in the form of a girl jumped out from her wand point. The girl first stood there, looking really confused, then only looked sadly at Hermione, and finally, the patronus wandered around the room aimlessly as if not knowing where to go.

"OK, exactly the same result as I got a moment ago." Harry had an impulse to reach for his Comed-Tea, and suppressed it. "Before I can tell you what all this means, there's something I need to tell you, so that I can finish the story without giggling or laughing until you knock me down and bring me to St. Mungo's."

Hermione composed herself. "Say it, Harry."

"Professor Snape is a bat animagus."

Both Harry and Hermione fell into hysterical laughter.

"Oh, no, Harry, I - I am such a terrible person." Hermione giggled helplessly, and wiped her tears, "I shouldn't have laughed at him."

Harry was wiping laughing tears as well, but some of the tears may have come from another source.

**The Next Chapter will be uploaded at 6 pm (EDT), 04/13/2015**


	18. Chapter 18 Answers

Chapter 18.

5:57 pm, June 24th, 1993

Third Private Meeting, Hermione, Answers

After Hermione's laughter finally dwindled down to giggles, Harry wiped his eyes dry, "Five days ago, Professor Snape revived Lucius Malfoy using the same ritual the Dark Lord used to revive you. Or, at least, both Severus Snape and Lucius Malfoy seriously believe this narrative, as verified by Parseltongue. I've got one more test that we can run a few hours later, but my current test results seemed to confirm at least part of the story."

Hermione gaped at Harry's statement.

Harry went on to recount the story Severus told him about that night, Severus' theory on revival, and about the revival of Lucius. After finishing the story, Harry began to explain the tests he did. "First, I asked Professor Snape to show his patronus. Since you were able to resist the Dark Lord's temptations, I thought you would be a good observer for this test. It seems that Professor Snape knows part of the secrets in the true patronus charm, mostly the part pointed out by Voldemort plus some of his own deductions. Secondly, I asked him if he knew anything else that could go wrong. It appears that Professor Snape knows that your ability to heal came from an unicorn and a troll. The unicorn part is pretty obvious just from your look, but not the troll part. The knowledge about the troll and the true patronus can't come from Lucius, who only came to the graveyard later."

-_And Severus knows about the horcrux as well. _

"So there is a high probability that Professor Snape was indeed there, observing the whole scene, though the Time barrier set up by the Dark Lord, or something else, prevented him from coming near or doing anything. And later that night, when he had every opportunity to take the true Stone and run away, he returned everything to me, and only took the duplicates of the Stone and the instruction manual." Harry showed Hermione the dull-looking red glass. "We can test to see if this duplicate can indeed extend transfiguration on a small item longer for a limited time in a few hours, but I guess we already got some conclusions. Correct me if I made any mistakes in my reasoning, I think we proved that Professor Snape did observe the scene, and though he is maybe a little bit shrewd, he is a good person deep down, or, at least he is someone who can resist great temptation."

Hermione thought for a while, and nodded.

"And about the test I let you run with your patronus, well, I have tested all the supposedly dead Death Eaters a few days after that night, just to check if they are really dead. It appeared that the transfigured Dark Lord confused my patronus; the dead ones made the patronus looked sad; and Bellatrix, who was on the run and might have some anti-patronus charm on herself, made my patronus wandered around aimlessly. One year ago, Lucius appeared to be dead-dead instead of transfigured-horcrux-dead to my patronus, or so it seemed at that time. I am sure Moody used other methods to check on his own as well. Therefore, Lucius was quite likely to be dead one year ago, or until Moody last checked." Harry reasoned. "Now, it is possible that Professor Snape figured out how to revive someone with well-preserved heads from the Dark Lord's instruction manual, and from the things he heard. Since he only had an inferior duplicate Stone, he couldn't stabilize Lucius' form, so they had to come to us."

Hermione blinked, and asked, "Or?"

"Or, Lucius had an improved version of horcrux or something alike, and Professor Snape revived him from there. These two modified each other's memories afterwards, or they had someone else do it, so both of them could truly believe what they said in Parseltongue." Harry said slowly, "But I don't really see the point for Professor Snape to lie about the revival process. I can go and ask Professor Snape to revive another Death Eater that he said he preserved, and verify if he could do it. Moody can check the altar Professor Snape used and everything related. So that's one of the reasons why I chose to believe Professor Snape."

Harry's inner critic timely offered, _it is also because we want to revive mother and father and everyone else, therefore we wanted to believe him. For what was worse, we even wanted to believe his hair theory, which was obviously ridiculous. We should be sentenced in Rationality Prison for eternity for wanting to believe something like that after all this time._

Hermione pondered the question for a while. "Well, I can't offer any good reason for Professor Snape to lie about the revival, either. I am sure Moody can propose some ideas. And you talked with Lucius Malfoy as well?"

Harry nodded. "Yes, the whole conversation between Lucius and I was in Parseltongue. And here is the strange thing, Lucius Malfoy practically told me that memory charms could fool Parseltongue, but the effects of memory charms might be different from real events. Lucius told me that his first possible kill was when his tutor memory charmed him into believing a captured muggle killed his mother, so that he could hate the muggle enough to use the killing curse. He wasn't even sure the entire thing happened, and he still felt it extremely difficult to cast the killing curse in his first Death Eater raid under Bellatrix's wand point."

\- _And it is very hard to decide if Lucius was really being cooperative, or if he was playing the game one level higher than I am._

"He also defended himself in Parseltongue, saying that he didn't kill as many as people say he did, while he just told me that even Parseltongue could be fooled by memory charms." Harry sighed.

"So as to create plausible deniability?" Hermione asked.

"Or Lucius was offering truth to the best of his knowledge. I admit that I am confused. We need to draw a chart for this." Harry reached into his pouch. "Paper and pencil. First, let's have the variables and assign possibilities. I assume Lucius doesn't want the world to come to its end, let that be 99.9%. The probability that Lucius loves Draco is, 95%, maybe? Or he is an amazing actor, 5%. The probability that he wants to secure Draco's position, or promote him, hmm, let's say 90% in total, and 10% for he wants power for himself. Within the first category, Lucius may want to alienate us so that Draco can be number two -"

-_Ha, if Lucius knew Voldemort made a horcrux for Hermione from Severus, he was probably the one who told Severus there was a rumor about horcruxes might be ominous for offsprings, or he did it by memory charms to let Severus think he heard it somewhere else. He expected Severus to tell me this, so I would be careful not to have kids with Hermione, and I would try to stop Hermione from having kids until everything got settled out. He might think that's a way that he can keep Hermione and I apart. Hmm, I can certainly verify if there is indeed a rumor and when the rumor came out by myself. _

Harry's inner critics interjected. _Are you sure you are not in the wishful thinking mode again? You wanted to believe horcruxes are OK to have, as long as you don't kill others for it yourself. Plus, it wasn't that likely for Severus to tell Lucius the details of that night. Lucius had to guess about the details of the ritual, remember? And don't forget the unknown effect of unicorn blood on childbirth._

Hermione also obtained a pencil from her pouch, and started to help drawing a Bayesian chart while Harry recounted some of the things Lucius said in their conversation.

Just as Harry began to explain his discussion with Lucius on prison sentence, Hermione put down her pencil, and looked at Harry in the eyes. "Harry, I have a question. I understand that Lucius and you needed to agree on a plausible story and so on, and I am happy that he will be tried as himself. However, why did Lucius Malfoy confess his sins and negotiate his prison sentence with _you_? Instead of Madam Bones or anyone in the Department of Law Enforcement? Plea bargains should be negotiated with prosecutors, Harry. And determining the years to be served in prison by a Death Eater is not a war decision, so it should undergo the due legal process."

"Ahh… " Harry opened his mouth.

Harry didn't think of that. Apparently, nor did Lucius, nor Severus, nor Draco. Maybe this was the way how things were always done in the wizarding world, where people with real powers negotiate deals behind closed doors. Lucius successfully deduced - or Draco just told him - that Harry was behind Madam Bones. Guessing out this part wasn't hard after all. Therefore, Lucius wanted to reach a deal directly with Harry.

"Harry, this scares me sometimes, you know." Hermione said in a flat tone.

"But - well, OK, you're right." Harry admitted reluctantly. "But I don't think I could let Lucius tell Madam Bones his reason for shorter imprisonment. Lucius was the binder for the Vow, I can't let Madam Bones know about the Vow, or the Prophecy that I may destroy the world. Even if only 0.01% of the people potentially saved by the Vow can be attributed to Lucius, he still saved 2.4 million people."

Hermione retorted. "But you said Lucius was forced by Voldemort to do it, he didn't volunteer. And Lucius Malfoy wanted to put me in Azkaban, Harry. Azkaban with dementors!"

"That's true, but -" Now Harry's inner selves were conflicting between his care for Hermione and that for Draco. He sighed. "As I told you, the Dark Lord thought my game with Draco might lead to Lucius' moves against me, so he wanted to remove Lucius from the gameboard and alienate Draco from Lucius. The Dark Lord framed you in the attempted murder of Draco, called for the Azkaban sentence, and planned to present iron-clad evidences saying that Lucius did it to exile or imprison Lucius. Lucius, well, I guess he was evil enough to fall into the Dark Lord's trap, but some fathers who were not as evil as Lucius might also fall into the same trap. And after the Dark Lord murdered you, with some tricks from my part, Lucius reached a deal with me, became an ally, and carried out his part of the deal pretty well as far as I know. I guess that was part of the reason why the Dark Lord chose Lucius as the binder. So, at least, I am partially responsible for Lucius becoming the binder, and Lucius did try to do some good things before he died."

"You still know Lucius is evil, and you respect law and justice, right?" Hermione asked.

"I do. I just -" Harry stuttered.

-_I just don't want to hurt Draco anymore. Draco almost lost his father when Voldemort tried to frame Lucius for the attempted murder, because I played my little games with Draco; then Draco did lose his father, because I killed Lucius; and now, for the third time…_

"Hermione, there is," Harry gulped, "Draco. You know what the last year was like for him. I feel like - I don't want Draco to lose his father again, and I also need to make sure justice is served."

Hermione looked at Harry in the eyes, and argued reasonably. "That's exactly why you shouldn't be the judge here, Harry. I would understand if you want to treat Lucius Malfoy as the father of a friend, help him get lawyers, and you can testify in front of Madam Bones or the Wizengamot that what he said in Parseltongue is known to himself to be true. You should hand the legal process to professionals, so that you can be the friend who will help Draco to make sure that his father will get a fair trial. Just don't use your Boy-Who-Lived and Line of Merlin Unbroken power to force any leniency."

-_Ahh… _

That, that didn't occur to Harry, either. All of a sudden, the Boy-Who-Lived's face brightened up a bit, and his voice lighter, "Hermione, you are right. I didn't think of it. Yeah, after due legal processes, I can sort of let Madam Bones consider some reason to reduce Lucius' term, say, his escape and lost of magic had contributed a little bit in the prevention of world destruction by the Dark Lord's remnant."

Hermione gave Harry a disapproving look.

"Or, I will say that it was something that she is not to know, but Lucius was forced to sacrifice much of his magic to save quite a number of people, which is true as well." Harry thought of another reason.

"By the way, maybe we should ask Madam Bones to excuse herself from this case, because she has a conflict of interest, since her brother's whole family were murdered by Lucius." Hermione's brows frowned a bit. "Who in the Department of Law Enforcement doesn't have a conflict of interest? It's really hard to find someone considering Lucius' criminal history."

Harry felt a huge burden had been taken off from his shoulder, now he could defend Lucius as he liked. "I haven't tell you this part yet. Lucius said that Karkaroff led the raid on Madam Bones' brother's family, Bellatrix led the one on Monroe family, and he said he wasn't in either of those. He denied all sex-related crimes as well."

"What? Why? Are you sure he didn't memory charm himself or have someone else do it?" Hermione asked.

"I'm not sure," Harry answered. "But he did offer a very good explanation, sort of. Remember that I told you the Dark Lord intentionally made his enemies more worthy? I guess the slaughter of the Bones family that only left Madam Bones and Susan unscathed was one such event, where the Dark Lord wanted to have a cunning and powerful witch who hated him enough. When Lucius was given such an assignment, Lucius just refused to create a powerful enemy like that, and managed to weasel out. Well, if my guesses are correct, few of Lucius' victims have any powerful family members left alive to pursue justice."

Hermione paused and frowned. "That explanation does make some sense, but it somehow scares me more than the ruthless random killings people say he did."

-_No, it isn't. A sane and cunning enemy like Lucius tries to control the damage, or not to cause damage unless necessary; while a crazy or stupid one may be easy to defeat, but you have no idea what they might do. The evil and sane dark wizards like Voldemort and Lucius would try to prevent world destruction; a stupid or negligent villain, or "hero" for that matter, may not be able to suppress their curiosity, and just press the "Do Not Press, otherwise World Will End" button anyway._

Harry sighed. "Hermione, maybe I have too high a standard, sometimes, I just hoped all our enemies, or all people, are half as sane as the Dark Lord, or even half as cunning as Lucius. Just think of this, if the whole revival thing goes public, and it is indeed as easy as Professor Snape originally thought, that one hair is enough, what would happen? I bet some negligent idiots will just try dangerous things that they would not usually try, and cause great damage to themselves and to the world. Remember what happened when we made the Stone available to everyone? We set up a queue system where people who wants to be younger and looks better can sign up on it, and the Hospital will do whatever they like when it is their turn and when the Stone is not in need for real lethal conditions. However, within less than one month, we saw an influx of witches and wizards who conducted free transfiguration on themselves, or did something equally stupid to themselves, so that they could have a real lethal condition that needed to be fixed by the Stone, and to have the nose they liked, or teeth they preferred at the same time. Several idiots did this multiple times, because they wanted to try different noses, or skin tones, or something like that. Several people died before they could get to the Hospital. They wouldn't die if they just waited in the queue and let professionals do it, or if they didn't know the Stone existed. When the news that high officials from all over the world are working on a law to imprison the idiots who did stupid things to themselves multiple times, the number of people in emergency just increased, because they wanted to get better looks before the law was passed. That's how stupid and reckless people can be if they think they have some sort of safenet, even when they still know that they can really die. Think what would happen when they know a single hair can revive them."

Hermione paused to think, and shuddered.

_The world may not be ended by some smart villains, just by some reckless idiots, or by some arrogant heroes like us. _All parts of Harry agreed on this particular topic. _We need to rationalize the mind of everyone before we make revival publically available. _

"So anyway, we need to figure out a way to let people learn to be rational and careful, whilst not destroying the world in the teaching process." Harry sighed again.

Hermione nodded in agreement.

"Hermione, there is one more thing about Lucius that I need your opinion." Then Harry explained how Lucius would be quite useful in the dealing of international politics, and how Lucius' mind could be used to predict other dark wizards' movements. "The international politics stuff, I may be able to figure it out within a few years, the real problem is how to predict the thoughts of dark wizards. Dumbledore had difficulty in understanding Voldemort, Moody said he had difficulty predicting Lucius, Snape hadn't thought of the danger of the Stone and the revival ritual before Lucius pointed out to him, and I need to go into my dark side to predict Voldemort's moves. Oh, well, maybe I am only able to predict sane or semi-sane dark wizards. Two years ago, when I just met Draco, catering to fools were part of his instincts; while I was unable to lower my standard to do that, and maybe that's still who I am. So my guesses for Lucius Malfoy is that, he has a better understanding of the dark wizards' minds and the stupidity and other characteristic fallacies of common people. I wonder if we can use Lucius for these purposes."

Hermione fell into silence. Harry knew Hermione was in the same type of dilemma as he was. Lucius Malfoy was a calculating dark wizard and cold-blooded murderer himself, and was an expert in the exploitation of common people's stupidity, negligence, fear, greediness and other human flaws by generations of practise. These might be quite handy in the time being. However, such abilities of Lucius were objectionable in Hermione and Harry's moral systems, and both of them wanted to rid such things from human nature in the future. Plus, the trustworthiness of Lucius was a big pending question.

After a while, Hermione said with a frown. "Let's finish the Bayesian chart first, then we will have some standards to estimate how trustworthy Lucius is. We will figure out some ways to verify our prediction, and go from there." Hermione continued drawing on the paper, and said. "OK, I can think of one big question now: did Lucius modify his memory about the number of murders he committed? Professor Snape was a Death Eater, and he might know something about the murders Lucius denied, unless his memory was modified as well. Let's have Professor Snape on the chart as well."

-_Well, Karkaroff is probably not that reliable as a witness, neither is Severus. The majority of Death Eaters in Nurmengard hardly remember the birthday of their kids. Letting Severus revive Quirrell might be a solution, but that will create more problems than solving them. And Bellatrix Black, I wonder how to catch her._

Then a horrible idea came to Harry.

-_What would Voldemort/Harry do after being trapped by horcruxes hidden in obscure places?A cunning man as Voldemort was, he might not rely on one plan to work. Linking his Version 2.0 horcrux system to the Resurrection Stone, and put some horcruxes in more obvious places, might not be his only improvements. He might entrust some of his horcruxes to Bellatrix as well. Since Voldemort is not dead, Version 2.0 horcruxes do not work now, but the Version 1.0 horcruxes do._

-_What order would Voldemort/Harry give to Bellatrix?_

-_Guard my items well and hide yourself well while I return to my true body. If a certain item is activated, physically touch it, put your heart and soul to it. Otherwise, wait for a certain amount of time, if you are not contacted, trigger another set of items. Say, a Version 1.0 horcrux made just before I tried my hands on the Stone. And little Bella, I also have some knowledge that I need to temporarily store in your mind, but you are not to use them or think of them except to pass them back on to me. Or simply, just guard my pet snake really well, and don't look at it in the eyes._

"Harry, what's your idea for testing Lucius' trustworthiness? You are awfully quiet." Hermione asked while drawing a line between "Snape modified Lucius' memory" and "Snape lied about resurrection ritual".

Harry's voice was unsteady as he said the sentences. "A ticking bomb of a lesser version of Voldemort returning. Once I began to throw away some of my previous assumptions, I didn't even need to sink into my dark side to see it. Voldemort might have entrusted some of his horcruxes to Bellatrix, and gave her an order when to trigger them unless contacted. One year seems to be a good waiting period to me. We need to find Bellatrix Black, very soon."

Hermione put down her pencil, hand shaking a little. "Harry, are you 99% sure that neither Lucius nor Professor Snape wants You-Know-Who back? If so, we should ask them to think as hard as possible on how to find Bellatrix Black."

Harry looked at Hermione sadly. "Yes, we should. I will also ask Moody and Madam Bones, and I will sink into my dark side as well. Wake me up if I don't come back in fifteen minutes."

Then, under the watchful eyes of his most trusted female companion, the Boy-Who-Lived sank fully into his dark side, wondering where Voldemort's most devoted female follower would be.

**The next chapter will be up at 6 pm (EDT), 04/15/2015 **


	19. Chapter 19 The Disappeared Lord

Note: I am not a native speaker, I apologize for any word choice/grammar/spelling mistakes, and please correct any linguistic problems. Thank you all so much.

Chapter 19.

The Disappeared Lord

May 5th, 1075

All the lore and stories about Salazar Slytherin agreed on one point: Lord Slytherin disappeared in his old age, and nobody knew where and when he died.

Disappeared indeed, but who said that the greatest of the Hogwarts Four and King of the Serpents had died?

At the age of one hundred and fifty, after giving his blessings to Angitia and her new husband Draco Malfoy, and expressing his concern about Circe's choice on her second husband Telemachus Gaunt - who also happened to be her stepson, Lord Slytherin knew it was Time.

Things had been set in motion long before, and all it took was to return Hogwarts, and to stand in front of the Mirror.

People had rumored that Godric had become a long-living giant squid in the Great Lake, so Salazar paid a visit to the lake before he entered the castle. However, the squid showed neither intelligence nor Godric's characteristic self-righteousness, for Salazar sliced a screaming merman into pieces in front of the squid, yet the squid just ate the meat from Salazar's hands like a good pet. Salazar considered killing a mudblood in front of the squid to make sure, but decided that he shouldn't attract attention.

-What a pity, Godric didn't seek immortality after all. Who shall I fight after I wake up from Time? Dueling him was the most fun I had in the past one hundred and fifty years.

Salazar also visited Rowena's tomb by the lake. To be honest, Salazar was quite angry at Rowena when he heard that she died from heartbreak after her disobedient and treacherous daughter was killed. He had hoped that Rowena, the most knowledgeable and most clever one in the Hogwarts Four, would one day come to her senses, and see his point that all mudbloods were dirty illiterate little traitors who should never learn magic. But no, Rowena died pathetically over her empty-headed daughter Helena's treason and subsequent death. If Helena were his daughter, Salazar would have cursed her into her senses, or simply imperiused her years ago. Now come to think of it, he should slip Helena some interesting potions before he left Hogwarts. What a waste!

And Helga, powerful witch as she was, just wasted her time and talent on creating some pointless games. Salazar watched one Kwidditch game for about a quarter of an hour, and decided that woman was completely hopeless, so he canceled his plan to visit Helga's tomb in the herbology garden.

After a final check on his faithful pet Herpo the Basilisk and his charm on the Sorting hat, Salazar slipped into a highly guarded room linked to the Headmaster's office. When Godric was still in the Headmaster's room, it might be onerous for Salazar to come in without invitation; now, it was less than a minute's wand work. Salazar sadly acknowledged the fact that if going without the most powerful lord, any ward created in this fading age after Merlin and long after Atlantis could be broken by a cunning and powerful wizard. Therefore, for his plan to work, Salazar had to turn to the Mirror, the evidence of the last attempt of Atlanteans to save their civilization.

Salazar looked at the Mirror, and willed himself to refuse the image of his younger self. Then, the Mirror showed the true image of an old wizard.

Salazar scrutinized the wrinkled face which no longer shone the light of youth, the hunchbacked body which had lost almost seven inches of its original six feet height, the obtrusive belly that refused to lose its content no matter what potions Salazar created, and the lined and spotted hands that occasionally trembled and prevented him from precise wand movements. And there were things that the Mirror didn't show: it didn't show the stiffness and pain in the joints that prevented Salazar from dancing to his heart's content in his granddaughter's wedding, or the blurred vision that gave him a headache whenever he tried to read something for too long, or the slow recession of the powerful magic that was flowing inside him. It was Time.

-Hopefully, Herpo, with its knowledge of most of my powerful magic, can keep Hogwarts from falling apart before I wake up.

Salazar setted the trigger to wake himself from frozen Time upon the appearance of the Stone of Permanency, then began his next great journey.

More than nine hundred years later

After what resembled both one thousand years and one second of Time, Salazar slowly woke up from Time, knowing that the Stone of Permanency must be very near, even inside the Mirror.

-Finally, someone had combined the two powerful magical relics, and the King of Serpents had fulfilled the Prophecy. Now, Herpo, it is Time to call your companions, come to the Mirror, and replace yourselves with me. I shall grab some mudbloods to get you out later.

Lord Slytherin sent out the signal, yet received no response. After what Salazar felt like one day, he decided that the Time might be too long, Herpo was probably dead, and other snakes might be too far away to receive the weak signal that he could manage through the Mirror. He needed to initiate a backup plan, such as attracting some powerful wizard to enter the Mirror to replace him.

Salazar reached out of the Mirror with the little magic the Mirror allowed him to, and tried to sense the outside world. The problem was, what he sensed as Time passing by was definitely different from how Time ran in the outside world, and his range of senses was quite limited. He heard conversations way too fast for him to grasp, and sensed people came and went in front of the Mirror faster than sound. There wasn't enough Time for him to plot, or to lure anyone inside.

However, Lord Slytherin was as patient as a snake in the dark, because he could detect the magical trap setup by some moderately powerful wizard, probably the current Headmaster of Hogwarts, to lure his enemy in. With a little bit of twitching, things would work to Lord Slytherin's advantage.

A few days passed, or maybe a few months, he wasn't sure, the Stone left the Mirror before Salazar could react. An instant later, the wizard who set the Time trap walked willingly into the Mirror. Maybe that wizard did this for some grandeur reason, just like Godric always was. The decision of the current Headmaster was not Salazar's business, but his sacrifice did help. Although that stupid wizard's power was too weak to let Salazar out, the Time differences inside and outside the Mirror became smaller, Salazar could see the outside of the Mirror, and hear conversations inside Hogwarts better.

The Mirror was apparently in some chamber in Hogwarts, and there was a semi-powerful adult wizard and a child in front of it. From the magical sense, the adult was probably holding the Stone. The adult laughed hard, maybe at his enemy's stupidity. Then they said something in a language that Salazar didn't understand. The rapid sounds somewhat resembled English and French, but not quite.

There must be a long Time passed between his entry of the Mirror and now, for they no longer spoke Latin at school, and the vernacular was different from anything Salazar knew.

Then, to Salazar's delight, the adult spoke in Parseltongue. Unfortunately, even the Parseltongue was too fast for Salazar to fully grasp, but he did manage to distinguish some words: "helped … yess … time … ressurrect ... girl … "

-Resurrect! Some of my descendents have figured out how to resurrect others! Hopefully, it is not the useless horcrux type. And, does this resurrection need the Stone?

-And oh, the child held hostage by the adult apparently also understands Parseltongue, therefore he is also my descendent. Well, what can one expect after such a long time?

Salazar watched as the child and the adult left, and tracked their path with magic. Unfortunately, these two only used Parseltongue to open Salazar's Chamber of Secrets, and other conversation were all in a vernacular that Salazar was unable to understand.

Salazar was a little disappointed when the adult and child left the detectable range, but he was a patient snake. He knew, if he could lure enough wizards or magical creatures into the Mirror and free himself, neither the adult nor the child could possibly overpower the greatest of the Hogwarts Four in an ambush. He could afford to wait.

Salazar turned his attention to Hogwarts in general. From the senses of magical existence, the majority of the school children were in the yard, apparently watching the pointless game that Helga wasted her time on. There were also a number of unconscious or controlled people near the chamber of the Mirror, and there was multiple copies of one particular wizard in Hogwarts. One was controlled by Salazar's adult descendent, guarding the entrance to the chamber of the Mirror; two were in separate rooms, each holding a copy of the Stone of Permanency, busy making duplicates of a number of heads and bodies permanent; and there might be a fourth one that was fast fleeing Hogwarts castle without the Stone. And ahha, one copy of his child descendent was washing himself in a first floor bathroom, staggered toward the yard, also with the Stone.

It seemed that some very interesting plot was going on in the school. And amazingly, the child might have outsmarted the adult descendent in the future/past. Interesting indeed. A master plotter as Salazar would really like to try his hand in something like this, but he could wait.

After what felt like only a few minutes, one copy of the interesting wizard in one room left quickly with the Stone, one copy disappeared from his room - probably the work of a Time turner, and then the copy guarding the chamber fell down, and there came a loud CRACK. Soon after the CRACK, the copy in front of the chamber door disappeared quickly, while another copy of that wizard flew quickly through the corridors, and deliberately fell down hard at the location where he just left.

-Mediocre wizard as he is, a cunning one indeed. I would be quite disappointed if this one is not in my House. And the child as well. Watching your own descendents plotting against each other is truly amusing.

There came some commotions in the yard, and then mourning sounds in vernacular.

By the sunrise of the second day, which only felt like less than one hour for Salazar, he had figured out the interesting wizard was the Head of his House; and the child was a centerpiece or something, probably for defeating his semi-powerful adult descendent, and a Ravenclaw.

Salazar was somewhat disappointed at the discovery of the identities of the interesting wizard and the child.

-Interesting and cunning wizard that one is, his power level is mediocre to put it mildly. how can such a wizard be the Head of House Slytherin! Moreover, how did my cunning child descendent end up in Ravenclaw? There must be some way that I can steer him to Slytherin.

And by breakfast time, Salazar heard some announcement in vernacular. Because it was slow enough, Salazar was able to make out some names, including one Draco Malfoy, and a child in Slytherin cried out upon hearing this name. And several others were calling him by the name "Draco".

-Probably a descendant of Draco and Angitia, then. Good to hear that some of my descendants are in Slytherin House. Did some relative of the current Draco die last night? No matter, this Draco doesn't need to worry about the loss of powerful magic upon someone's death. Grandpa Salazar can teach little Draco magic that no one else know.

Needless to say, more of Salazar's attention was on his child descendent with the Stone. That boy locked himself in a deserted classroom, tested the power of the Stone, then entered the Headmaster's office, and met a bunch of mediocre witches and wizards.

Soon after, the Mirror was moved to Rowena's Private Chamber, which only contained a lot of junk now. Salazar felt quite indignant at this: what are the current wizards thinking? How dare they treated Rowena's Private Chamber like this? Do they have any idea of the real power of her Chamber, let alone the Mirror? I need to think of something creative to punish those idiots!

However, a few moments later, Salazar realized that the current wizards did know the value of Rowena's Chamber and the value of the Mirror, yet what they did was not to Salazar's advantage. The current wizards left the Chamber, thought of something else, entered the Chamber, and began to shower protection spells in the new Chamber, and there were always some people in there. By the rules of observation effect, nobody had access to the Chamber that Salazar was in, they could only enter the new Chamber with someone already in. Salazar had to admit, although the surrounding junk was highly unpleasant, this was a good way to protect the Mirror from stealth. However, Salazar was trapped in Rowena's semi-interposed Space nonetheless.

Probably a few days later for the outside world and a few hours for Salazar, someone held the Stone entered the new Chamber. Then, a constant stream of very sick people began to be shipped in, and shipped out as completely healthy individuals.

It took almost an hour for Salazar to fully comprehend what had happened: some good idiots have offered the healing power of the Stone to a lot of wizards. Oh, whatever gods and goddesses, are the current wizards completely nuts? Hogwarts will soon be conquered by wizards from all over Europe, and wizards from the East will come as well! And the current headmistress cannot even use the Hogwarts defense wards properly. I need to exit the Mirror, soon.

Salazar tried his best to send signals to all snakes in the Forbidden Forest, let them tell all the snakes, that all basilisks should come to the Forbidden Forest in a discreet way.

Then, Salazar concentrated all his energy on one thing: breaking the security system and interposed Space set up by Rowena. Salazar needed to create a passage for the basilisks, or whatever intelligent magical animals, or wizards that he could use to free himself. After all, he could always throw in enough griffins, giant squids, or some other unpleasant animals such as mudbloods, to free his snakes and the wizards later.

After some diligent work that Salazar thought might add an entire year to his age, a narrow passage just enough for a small basilisk was finally connected to his Chamber of Secrets. Now, Salazar could call for the two basilisks that had arrived in the Forbidden Forest while Salazar was deciphering Rowena's riddles.

**The next chapter will be up 6 pm (EDT), 04/17/2015.**


	20. Chapter 20 The Faithful Servent

Chapter 20.

6:47 pm, June 27th, 1993

The Faithful Servant

Bellatrix Black was shaking all over herself when she trigger the portkey.

-_Oh, Merlin, my Lord must be so displeased. Little Bella has lost the track of time. Little Bella is so late._

A month or so after her Lord retrieved her from Azkaban, Bellatrix couldn't quite remember the date back then, the snake animagus that had accompanied her Lord came to the secret hiding place. He said her Lord might need little Bella's left arm for a ritual to return to his true body. Bellatrix was so happy that she was again useful for her Lord, and she cut off her left arm without any hesitation. Actually, she didn't even feel any pain, because her Lord also ordered the snake animagus to move her Dark Mark to her breast, right above where her heart was. With each heartbeat, Bellatrix felt her Lord was with her. And her Lord also said that she should practice magic as hard as she could, and he might need her skills later as well.

Bellatrix was beyond herself as she thought of the possibility that her Lord might need her skills someday. She obeyed all the orders from the healer woman Crystal Camblebunker, who was sent to heal her by her Lord, so that she could be stronger when the time came. And Bellatrix practiced magic as hard as she could.

Even within her disoriented and fragmented memories, Bellatrix could still clearly remember that special date, June 13th, 1992. That morning, the snake animagus man, Jeremy Jaffe, came again. This time, that man ordered her healer to go with him, and gave Bellatrix some very important missions. Bellatrix was given a pouch and a set of instructions that she could only look at if her Dark Mark was not dark again within the next twenty-four hours.

Since Jeremy Jaffe and her healer left, Bellatrix had been watching her Dark Mark the whole day. The sun rose to its full height, and fell. The Dark Mark did not change. The moon rose, and rose. As the moon got to around its highest point, the Dark Mark suddenly turned black. Bellatrix almost couldn't believe her own eyes.

-_My Lord is back! He is back! In his true body!_

Bellatrix cried with happiness and joy, she danced under the moon, all the time watching her beautiful Dark Mark jumping up and down on her breast. She wanted to shoot a Morsmordre to the sky to tell the world that her Lord was back, but she was previously instructed to lay low by her Lord, so she hid her joy to herself.

However, Bellatrix's joy didn't last long. Her Mark suddenly flared up, as if burning through her soul and entire body.

-_Oh, my Lord must be so angry at useless Little Bella. Does he want me to Crucio myself?_

Just as Bellatrix was about to Crucio herself, some memory that she tried to forget emerged: that horrible Halloween night. All of a sudden, her Lord disappeared without a trace or message.

-_No, Bella, you can't think that. It must be…_

The pain above her heart subdued, and the color of the Dark Mark receded to light grey.

Bellatrix wanted to Crucio someone, she wanted to Crucio herself. She couldn't believe this, she couldn't accept this!

It was only that her Lord's order this morning that kept Bellatrix from running out to look for her Lord.

-_Maybe, maybe my Lord will come back again. He told Little Bella to wait for twenty-four hours_.

Bellatrix waited, and waited.

Tears ran dry. Wails became inaudible whispers.

The twenty-four hour mark passed. Her Dark Mark was still grey.

With trembling hands, Bellatrix opened the pouch she got one day ago. In the pouch, there was a note written in her Lord's handwriting, and several twigs. On that note, Bellatrix was instructed to trigger the portkey in the shape of green twig in her pouch in one year's time if she was not instructed otherwise. She should remain in the current place unless it was found by someone, in which case Bellatrix was not to fight. Instead, she should trigger a random twigs in any other color but green, and hide there instead. Food, water and potions for one year's use had been prepared for her in all locations. And Bellatrix should also read the _Daily Prophet_ delivered to her hiding place, so she could hide herself better in case all locations had been found by someone.

Bellatrix did as she was instructed. She ate food, drank potions, and read the _Daily Prophet_ that somehow appeared at her doorstep every morning without an owl.

However, without the healer woman, Bellatrix had began to lose the track of time, or even herself. She sometimes forgot to drink her potions in time, and ended up drank multiple bottles at the same time when she remembered, but that only seemed to make things worse.

Bellatrix tried to read the _Daily Prophet_ every day, but she began to lose the grasps on the meanings of the words. Bellatrix remembered the paper had run long stories on how her Lord attempted to gain omnipotence by the sacrifice of all Death Eaters, how the mudblood girl - Granger or something - spoiled the whole plan, and how David Monroe might also be involved. Bellatrix didn't believe a single word in it. How could her Lord be defeated by a mudblood girl, or the David Monroe guy who had only created some minor troubles for her Lord?

There was also something else on the _Daily Prophet_ that had caught Bellatrix's attention. It was about the return of Narcissa. Bellatrix didn't have much memory of her youngest sister, except the anguish and anger she felt when she heard Narcissa was burnt alive in her own bedroom. She wanted to kill Dumbledore for it, she wanted to kill the useless ponce Lucius Malfoy for it, but her Lord had forbidden all revenges. Bellatrix couldn't remember much beyond that, which meant other memories about Narcissa were happy ones. Now, all Bellatrix had was the newspaper, where a beautiful woman smiled beside a blond boy whose face looked too much a resemblance of his useless and treacherous father.

On a later paper, the sister that Bellatrix didn't really remember she had was caught to meet Lesath Lestrange in Mary's Place. And that was a name that Bellatrix didn't quite remember, either. Bellatrix remembered the horror and disgust she felt when she knew she was impregnated by either one of the Lestrange brothers, how she wanted to get rid of the thing in her belly, and how she was ordered by her Lord to give birth to the baby. Narcissa had hugged her, brought her things when she was pregnant, and cried, maybe? Oh, she remembered. She had berated Narcissa for her weakness, because if her Lord wanted her to have the baby, Little Bella was going to do that, and it was not Narcissa's place to insinuate that Little Bella should at least get married. As for the childbirth, and whatever happened around the child afterwards, Bellatrix couldn't recall. So there might be some happy memories there.

And there were all that news on the Stone, and the Hospital. They said that the mudblood girl killed all the dementors in Azkaban, and a hospital with some fancy name, which everyone just call it the Hospital, was built there. The healing power of the Stone was used to heal everyone from old age and disease. The place of desperation now became a place of hope and life. But there were rumors that the real location of the Hospital was not in Azkaban, but in Hogwarts, or in a sealed chamber in the Department of Mysteries set up by Merlin himself, or in some other secret locations, protected by some ancient wards.

Bellatrix knew her Lord would want that Stone, but her was ordered to wait. So she waited, and waited.

Bellatrix practiced magic while waiting, she planned her revenge while waiting, she ate and drank while waiting, and she downed the potions while waiting.

The problem was, Bellatrix began to lose the track of time and the track of herself while waiting. She had slept for days after she drank too much potion in one dose. She had woken up in odd places in the ward set up by her Lord, like in a corner of the yard, on the dining table, or on the rooftop.

When Bellatrix woke up this time amidst cockroaches and plastic wrappings of muggle food this time, she was horrified to find out that she had drank all the potions her Lord left her, and she had missed the one year mark!

Bellatrix trembled all over herself when she fumbled to find the pouch, and broke the green twig.

A hook grabbed Bellatrix's navel point, and the world swirled.

Bellatrix steadied herself, and looked at the surroundings. She was inside some cavern dimly lit by eerie green light, and the place she stood was a small island in the middle of a great black lake. Something on the bottom of the lake seemed to be unsettled by the sound of Bellatrix's landing, and began to gather.

However, those were not Bellatrix's concerns. No matter it was Heaven or Hell, Little Bella would just do her Lord's bidding. Her eyes were instantly attracted by a green pouch a few feet away from her. Bellatrix grabbed the pouch, and took out a note. The note in her Lord's handsome writing said:

"_My Dear Bella,_

_Those who desire light will be engulfed by it. _

_Drink your final dose of potion in the pouch, then obliviate yourself of all your memories except that you will take a cup out from the pouch afterwards._

_-L.V._"

Bellatrix was quite happy to receive a new order from her Lord, but then she found her Lord ordered her to obviate herself of all her memories.

-_Oh, my Lord has no use of Little Bella's memory anymore. But Little Bella will do as instructed._

Bellatrix called "potion", and a bottle of grey potion jumped into her hand. She drank down the bitter content in one gulp, then pointed her wand toward herself.

Bellatrix inhaled, exhaled, and thought of the vague faces of her youngest sister and her son for the last time.

"Obliviate."

**The next chapter will be published at 6 pm (EDT), 04/19/2015.**


	21. Chapter 21 The New Godfather

Chapter 21.

6:32 pm, June 27th, 1993

The New Godfather

Severus walked in quiet strides toward his old dungeon office in Hogwarts, black robes billowing behind him, reminiscent of the overgrown bat that he actually was. He made a left turn on a dimly lit stairway that went upward when he should go downward and toward the right hand side, because this way was actually faster for some reason maybe only the Founders could conceive.

The past three days had not been easy for Severus.

The endless questions from Mad-Eye and Madam Bones were hard, but Severus could deal with those easily enough. After all, he had dealt with Mad-Eye for twelve years now; the paranoid auror had a new leg and looked much younger these days, but something about him did get old and predictable, for all his preaching of constant vigilance and avoiding obvious moves. After enough time around him, it became clear how he would act in most situations. Besides, Severus could dodge the more dangerous questions by explaining that they were not to know. It was a small boon to see the grimace of frustration and barely masked suspicion on Mad-Eye's face whenever he evaded a question in that manner.

The problematic part was, Severus had begun to feel for Theodore Nott, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle.

Merlin knew what had been in Lucius' mind when he made himself the fallback godfather for the heir of Nott. When Lucius was 'captured,' Theodore was no longer an orphan ward of Hogwarts, but became a ward of Lucius and Narcissa. And since Lucius had not been clever enough to evade prison, Severus - who was unfortunately the only one who visited Lucius often enough besides the aurors - had been entrusted to deliver some legal documents between Theodore and the Malfoys. Annoyingly, the heir of Nott had failed his Transfiguration OWLS, so the Malfoys would serve as Theodore's guardian for at least one more year, thus extending Severus' trouble for at least one more year.

In the previous meeting with Theodore, the boy had looked taller but much thinner than last year. He might be clever enough to figure out something besides the story on the Daily Prophet, because that lanky boy didn't appear to harbor any anger or disappointment toward Lucius. He just looked at Severus sadly, with some hope, expectation, and begging in his eyes.

-_Merlin, if this story cannot fool a thirteen year old Slytherin, how can we fool the world?_

And what was worse, Severus knew he could bring back Lord Nott easily enough, but magical Britain, the magical world, simply couldn't afford it.

As for Draco's two minions, Severus had only exchanged glances with them once in a hallway beneath the Ministry of Magic, when the two boys and their mothers were brought in for questioning concerning their fathers' crimes as Lucius' minions. Goyle had seemed thinner, and Crabbe had put on quite some weight. Severus understood enough about adolescent minds to suspect that the two had developed unhealthy coping mechanisms.

And it was the same problem as when Severus had seen Theodore: he couldn't just go ahead and perform the ritual as he liked, even for those Death Eaters that he had preserved.

Severus had thought of trying the ritual on one of the brain-dead muggle corpses to see if Harry's theory was true, but he knew his every move was now under the scrutiny of powerful lords scattered across the globe, even the return of an unimportant muggle could easily prove disastrous.

Sometimes, Severus thought the ritual and/or the patronus had done something to him. But the Boy-Who-Lived was still able to kill thirty-six Death Eaters without so much as blinking, so the ritual couldn't possibly prohibit the performer from killing others. He supposed it was possible that killing would require anger, the wrath he had seen etched onto Albus' face when he faced down Death Eaters and the Dark Lord. Perhaps it was necessary to think that the killings were for some greater good; or to be insane enough like the Boy-Who-Lived. Judging from the expression on the boy's face when he heard about the heads Severus had collected, Harry had probably made some resolution to resurrect the very people he killed. Or at least the ones Severus had been clever enough to preserve.

-_And is that the level of insanity required for the "true" patronus?_

Severus stopped short, lost in thought. He found himself still wishing the Dark Lord to be truly dead, destroyed beyond the possibility of resurrection, instead of safely transfigured. The ex-Death Eater decided that if insanity of that sort was the secret behind the true patronus, it was not to his current taste.

And then there was the problem of Lucius' safety.

Three days ago, Mad-Eye had been summoned to Hogwarts. After catching sight of Lucius, the no-longer-limping auror had cast a half dozen illegal curses in seconds. Lord Malfoy had escaped without permanent harm, after the Boy-Who-Lived managed to calm the auror down and explain the basics of the situation. After a battery of tests to ensure the identities of everyone present, Mad-Eye had growled that he was "satisfied", but his eye whirled around in its socket,never leaving Lucius, Severus, Draco, nor Narcissa for more than a moment.

The Boy-Who-Lived then asked each of them to go "all dark and paranoid," just to think where Bellatrix Black might be.

Although Severus didn't understand why Harry Potter all of a sudden became so grim and so Dumbledore-ish, but instincts told him that the question was probably asked toward Lucius. Otherwise, the boy could safely ask Severus and Mad-Eye, and neither of them would refuse. Thinking like that, the answer was quite obvious.

Lucius was clever enough to figure out that point as well, for the fully-bounded white-haired aristocrat offered politely, "Lord Potter, I think I might be a good bait for Bellatrix. I suggest that we publish on the newspaper that because of my reluctance for the sacrifice the Dark Lord asked, his ritual failed. And my silent rebellion was probably one of the biggest reason for the backfire that vanquished him temporarily. Afterwards, I knew that my Dark Mark was still there, and I was so afraid of retribution from him that I went into hiding. We may slip in some true and false interesting details into it by various ways later for the interested ears. If my speculation is correct, Bellatrix is probably looking for the blood for the Dark Lord's enemies. Since Lord Potter and Auror Moody's blood is not that easy to get, I may qualify as a lesser substitute."

The Boy-Who-Lived then appeared to be quite hesitant, as if he really wanted to refuse Lucius' offer, and then accepted with reluctance after snarls from Mad-Eye. The performance of that boy still needed quite some perfection, if he wanted to become the next Light Lord who could lead people to willingly sacrifice their own lives.

Then Potter's next line almost completely blew away his benevolent cover. "And we are also going to include the following contents in the Daily Prophet: the Boy-Who-Lived said, the fact that a running Death Eater like Lucius had been brought back for the jurisdiction of law, proved our determination and strength. The Boy-Who-Lived also said, if Bellatrix Black had any sense in her at all, for the sky above, she should turn herself in."

And the Boy-Who-Lived's promise something that could really send Mad-Eye into roars if not spoken in Parseltongue, yet it negated his determined Light Lord image in front of Severus and Lucius nonetheless. "Lord Malfoy, I promisse I will bring you back if anything happenss to you. No matter what. "

By this point, Severus was completely speechless toward the boy's lame performance. Obviously, the boy had a long way to go.

In the meanwhile, Severus was also quite confused: from the odd "for the sky above" message he sent to Bellatrix, the Boy-Who-Lived was probably involved in the Azkaban breakout. But, is it to his advantage to spill this thing out? Or, did he just learn some details about Bellatrix from the Dark Lord, and he is trying to play one level higher?

However, whatever really happened in the Azkaban breakout, it was not Severus' place to question, because even if the boy - instead of Voldemort - was the mastermind behind it, there was still a Prophecy that if things around the boy went wrong, the world might end.

Therefore, Severus would only act his part, making sure that Draco and Narcissa were safe, and trying to instill all the potion lore he knew into the minds of Harry Potter and his two friends.

As for poor Lucius, a constant stream of family members of deceased Death Eaters were brought into the Ministry to counter Lucius' testimony, or so it seemed.- Of course, the real reason was to see if Bellatrix would try something blatantly stupid such as polyjuice potion.

And regarding Lucius' request for a secret wand or defensive magical artifacts, Mad-Eye gave a wolfish smile and answered simply: "You can physically wrestle Bellatrix if you need to. I am sure you can outpower an one-armed woman."

From the tone of it, Severus was quite sure that the old auror dearly hoped that Bellatrix would send Lucius a slow lethal curse and Lucius would choke Bellatrix to death in the meanwhile. And the sentiment was pretty much the same among other aurors. Therefore, Severus had no choice but to try to stick around Lucius, and to start planning how to preserve Lucius' head amidst flying curses.

The only good news for Lucius was that Karkaroff disappeared the moment the news about Lucius was deliberately leaked into some ears. -Probably, that guy knew that if Madam Bones figured out who killed her brother's whole family and conducted hideous acts on her great nephew, the old witch would tear him into pieces. And since some Scandinavian newspapers began to dig stories between the Headmaster of Durmstrang and a number of boys in the Quidditch teams that were unsuitable for the sensitive ears, Karkaroff would have a hard time hiding anywhere in Europe.

Besides worrying about his own neck, Lucius at least had one comfort: Madam Bones no longer held him as the primary suspect for the slaughter of her brother's family. Therefore, now Lucius was allowed some privileges suitable for Lord Malfoy, such as signing certain legal documents that Severus needed to deliver.

-_Maybe I should beat some common sense into that beautiful head of Lucius', that I am not his owl, and my guardianship for his son will end tomorrow!_

Severus made a last turn, and his former office - which was now Draco and Narcissa's temporary residence - was just steps away.

-_It is a good thing that the old fat armchair with the name of Slughorn preferred an office on the third floor when he came back as the Potions master and Head of Slytherin. At least, I still have a some place in the castle that I have already put some defensive wards up. Spinner's End is neither safe nor suitable to have Narcissa and Draco over. And I need to move faster in setting up the wards in my own temporary bedroom, who knows what may happen in the next minute._

Severus stopped his thought, knocked on his office door as a polite gesture, and spoke the password. "Serpent and wyvern."

The office door opened. As Severus walked through a brief Thief's Downfall, he wanted to roll his eyes.

Within three days of time amidst dealing with political repercussions and worrying about her newly revived husband's life, Narcissa had somehow managed to turn Severus' gloomy office and bedroom into something more suitable for the aesthetics of British aristocracy. The bare stone floor was now layered with carpets - Severus couldn't even name the things that Narcissa put between the top carpet and the stone floor to make the top carpet fit better; the dim torches designed to preserve potion ingredients better were replaced by bright crystal chandeliers; the best furnitures the house elves of Hogwarts could find were obviously not good enough for Lady Malfoy, for she brought quite some unused furnishings from the storage room of Malfoy Manor. In short, she had converted Severus' old office and bedroom into a miniaturized Malfoy Summer Villa.

Women were surely peculiar creatures that Severus had a hard time comprehending. Severus had thought Lucius was enough of a brat, but Lucius never uttered a word of complaint about the decor of the farm house in Nevada, or the fast food Severus bought from KFC and McDonalds. And Draco was surely spoiled first by Lucius, then by Narcissa, but that boy seemed to have enjoyed the stash of Coca-Cola Severus put in the grey suitcase quite a bit, and only could be stopped by his concerned mother who unfortunately knew Coke contained too much sugar and phosphate. However, the female Malfoy had to redecorate her temporary residence, and insisted on baking cookies herself in the kitchen of Hogwarts. Severus could only imagine how desperate the Hogwarts house elves must be watching Lady Malfoy do culinary works in front of them.

What was worse, Severus had to deliver her cookies to Lucius and to the aurors guarding Lucius. Obviously, Lucius didn't even get a single piece of the sweets. In the meanwhile, with scraps of biscuit on her face, Trainee Auror Tonks happily said that they would like to inspect more of Lady Malfoy's cookies. Severus casually mentioned this to Mad-Eye, and he was sure the metamorphmagus and her colleagues would get quite some stern lectures and hideous threats in the near future.

And there came the beautiful and strange creature who presented more mysteries than her eldest sister Bellatrix, whom Severus could sort of understand. "My dear Severus, it is such a delight to have you here. How was your day?"

Severus was glad that her worry had taken away some of her niceties, so that he could cut directly into the topic. As he was ushered to the elegant dining table embroidered with carved serpents in the office-turned-dining room, Severus nodded to Draco on her side, and answered, "Rather well. Lucius is in good spirits, the aurors ate all the cookies for him, and Mad-Eye bombarded us with questions. Before I came back to Hogwarts, I have visited Nott Manor. The heir of Nott was quite pleased to have you as his guardian and signed all the documents."

As Draco was pulling out her chair for her, Narcissa said sincerely, "Severus, you are such a wonder. I don't know how we can manage without you."

Severus wanted to roll his eyes again: _have all the purebloods received the same training as to appeal to other's chivalry and vanity? If so, Lady Malfoy definitely doesn't do it as subtle as her husband._

Severus nodded his head toward his godson who was pulling out his chair for him, and jumped to another topic. "Draco, the animagus meditation potion is ready. I will watch your first meditation tonight." As he sat down, a smirk appeared on his face. "If you become an illegal animagus tonight when you are still underaged, the punishment for such juvenile misdemeanor is only two hundred galleons in fines, instead of five hundred galleons in fines or two years' imprisonment."

Draco smiled nervously. "Thank you so much, Godfather. Tomorrow's ceremony, I mean, can I see Father -"

"No." Severus cut the boy off briskly. "Lucius has signed all the documents today, and you are not to leave Hogwarts until Bellatrix is caught. -And neither are you." Severus sternly eyed the blonde who was hiding her brief distress, then soften his voice a little bit. "Narcissa, I would not expect Bellatrix to remember much of either you or Draco. And if somehow I was mistaken in your sibling relationships and Bellatrix does remember you, that is just one more reason not to venture anywhere near Lucius. If you two need any other reasons, Lord Robert Jugson was arrested today for his attempt to curse Lucius when he was called in for questioning regarding his father's crimes."

Both Malfoys' faces turned white.

Severus waved his hand impatiently, "Lucius was unscathed. The aurors wouldn't let such lame and unplanned attacks to really hurt their valuable bait."

Yet Narcissa's face was still as white as ash. "Severus, you may call this superstition, but I have some very bad feelings today. I felt the same thing the day Lucius died one year ago."

Severus had known better than to dismiss such feelings from witches and wizards, because some of them were indeed related to true seers. "What do you feel specifically? I can give Mad-Eye some warnings."

Just as Narcissa was about to answer, Severus felt a slight twinge in his left arm, which also happened in April, 1991. He quickly pulled up his sleeve, then uttered something completely unsuitable for the delicate ears of his still-underaged godson and the uppermost noblewoman in wizarding Britain.

"Expecto Patronum! " As his bright ball-shaped patronus jumped upwards and vanished in air, Severus turned to his godson who started to show some horrible comprehensions. "Draco, I am afraid we have to cancel tonight's animagus training. There might be quite some discussions going on with the Boy-Who-Lived."

**The next chapter will be up at 6 pm (EDT), 04/21/2015. **


	22. Chapter 22 The Man of Many Names

Chapter 22.

The Man of Many Names

6:21 am, June 28th, 1993

In a luxurious modern apartment near the Square Mile of London, a middle-aged man sat by a large office table in the study. Lamplight reflected off of his balding head as he stared at the past year's collection of the _Daily Prophet_ over his brown moustache, his face bearing an expression of complete disbelief. His left hand fumbled awkwardly for his long-forgotten coffee on the table, as if it was only a prosthetic hand made of metal and plastic; and his right hand waved a black wand with amazing deftness and precision. "Accio _Quibbler_."

-_This has to be kidding. Not even that boy could be this stupid, not even Dumbledore could reach this level of insanity. And if what the paper said is true, how is the world not on fire?_

After flipping through _The Quibbler_, _American Mage_, _Toronto Magical Tribune_, and_ Magical Pravda_, the middle-aged man, known to some as Alexander Chernyshov, others as Jeremy Jaffe, some as Matsumoto Taro, while a certain boy might recognize him by magical resonance as Tom Riddle, sighed in complete frustration.

-_I know I was an exceptional idiot when I was twelve, I know Dumbledore is completely insane, and I have studied the minds of delusional patients in St. Mungo's, but what the boy did is beyond my wildest imagination. Providing service of the Stone to the entire wizarding world, what was he thinking?! Every powerful wizard in the world, no matter what they pretend to be or whether they consider themselves as Light or Dark, would drop their masks and pursue it! Perenelle was only able to keep the Stone for six hundred years because she pretended that the power of the Stone had great limitations, such as only being able to extend your life for a few decades, and spreading rumors such as infertility after using the Stone - as evidenced by the fact that she and Flamel never had any kids. And now, after a bunch of dying witches and wizards successfully had babies after returning to their twenties by the Stone, is there anything left that can prohibit the mundane idiots from wanting it? _

And as the man turned to his next obvious question, he felt a worse headache than he'd had last night when he saw Crystal Camblebunker's petrified body and found Nagini missing: _why is the world still standing today?_

The man could easily envision hundreds of ways how the world and maybe even the universe might come to the end - the books that boy lent him gave him some extra ideas - but he could not even figure out one reason why magical Britain was still largely intact today.

-_Surely, some powerful lords in the world would be wise enough to reach agreements with each other while the others were still squabbling. They can always rob the Stone from Azkaban/Hogwarts/Department of Mysteries first, and try to kill each other later. Or, is my estimation of human nature too optimistic again?_

There was also the question that what the hell happened on that night. Being a Version 1.0 horcrux as the boy might name him, the man only knew what Tom Riddle did and intended to do as of 6:26 am, June 13th, 1992, but he had no idea what really happened after that.

The man knew for sure that the ridiculous story given by the "vision" of the Boy-Who-Lived was something made up by the younger Tom Riddle in great haste. Although he did plan to revive the Granger girl, he had no plan to sacrifice all the Death Eaters, so that part must be the hand of that boy. He could hardly fathom how the simultaneous beheadings could be done if certain books given to him by that boy hadn't given him some ideas.

-_Probably the boy transfigured some anesthetic/poisonous gas that he himself had antidote, and then he did the beheadings later. Or maybe Mad-Eye Moody did it for him._

And thinking along that line, it was easy to explain why his Version 2.0 horcruxes were not activated the moment Tom Riddle was vanquished - because he didn't die, per se. Perhaps Moody had crucioed the original Tom Riddle into insanity, or obliviated him, or used some other magic, or made him brain-dead as called by the muggle medical book, or all of the above.

That could also partially explain Lucius Malfoy's sudden reappearance. He remembered his plan to force the boy to take an Unbreakable Vow that he would not destroy the world, and Lucius would be the binder. The _Daily Prophet_ said that Lucius' reluctance for the sacrifice the Dark Lord asked was the reason the ritual failed, and Lucius was a snake animagus.

-_Then things make sense now. The younger Tom Riddle is an heir of Slytherin as well. The treacherous Malfoy had already signed a deal with the Boy-Who-Lived, and these two might know that they could communicate in Parseltongue. So while the original Tom Riddle thought that Parseltongue conversation was private and safe, if Potter wanted Lucius to understand what the two Tom Riddles conversed in Parseltongue, Lucius could. Therefore, the boy and the elder Malfoy might have coordinated their moves, the boy used the magical resonance between Tom Riddles to temporarily disable the Dark Lord, while Lucius would use some gas or magical device to disable the other Death Eaters._

_-Oh, if everything went as planned, the boy still had one more hour in his Time-turner, so he could plan ahead with Lucius, and all Lucius needed was some cue from the boy, then he could act. And Lucius probably didn't die at all. He just laid low for a year, then came out again as the boy needed some blatantly stupid bait to get Bellatrix._

_-Well, maybe the bait isn't that stupid if I let Bellatrix run loose like the last time. She might think whatever the boy said in the newspaper is a new order for her, and just turn herself in. Or, she might break into the Ministry of Magic to kill Lucius for revenge. It is so hard to balance your servants' loyalty and their intelligence._

_-Maybe the younger Tom Riddle told Lucius that I was behind the attempted murder of his son, and I have planned to use that attempted murder to frame him, in Parseltongue, of course. Lucius might seek revenge. Moreover, the reward for Lucius' treason is also quite obvious: Narcissa. Hmm, I have never thought Lucius would care so much about his wife. Did he hold grudge against me when I refused to enact revenge for Narcissa's supposed death? _

_-Ordinary fools, Lucius Malfoy and Severus Snape alike. Admittedly, Bellatrix is pretty much like that as well. On the other hand, this part of human nature is something that I have not fully comprehended, and therefore not fully exploited earlier._

_-And since Lucius presented himself as the Number Two enemy of the Dark Lord, and a bait for Bellatrix, I will surely grant his wish after I get my power back and after I have killed the younger Tom Riddle. I will make sure to kill his wife and son slowly and creatively in front of him, and then enjoy some other creative ways on Lucius. But that can wait._

With one of the biggest mysteries solved, the man turned to the next impending question: _how can I get my power back?_

Before making this particular horcrux with Helga Hufflepuff's cup, Tom Riddle had thought of the fact that a Version 1.0 horcrux would not be able to understand the powerful magic that he wielded, so he had transferred all his knowledge to his basilisk pet Nagini, and arranged Crystal to look after it. He had to order Nagini not to petrify or kill Crystal, of course. However, when he went to Dean Forest last night, he had only found a stone statue of Crystal, and Nagini was no longer there. He caught a snake nearby, and asked what had happened.

The stupid non-magical creature answered: "_The Crown of Sserpent ordered all ssnakess to tell all bassilisskss and powerful magical ssnakess to go to Hogwartss discreetly. The caretaker woman tried to sstop Nagini, sso Nagini killed her._"

Tom Riddle immediately killed the snake and used a vanishing spell on the body, for any snake might report to the younger Tom Riddle, and he doubted if the memory charms that he could manage at this time could fool the minions of his younger self.

-_It seems that boy has overcome his reluctance in creating sapient beings, and began to utilize snakes as messengers. Hmm, he might want to gather all powerful magical snakes, and to see if any of them has the same knowledge as Herpo did. A very logical and clever approach indeed._

-_Ah, the boy might have figured out my backup plan as to use the combination of a Version 1.0 horcrux and a basilisk from there. Nagini must have just got Hogwarts, for the boy only started to use Lucius as a bait a few days ago. _

-_Damn, I have ordered Nagini not to give knowledge to anyone but me, yet the boy is another Tom Riddle, and another Heir of Slytherin. The boy must know the secrets of a lot of powerful magics by now. I need to kill that boy before he tells the secrets to more people. However, considering the boy's exceptional stupidity in dealing with the Stone, maybe even Lucius has been taught some protection spells that I created by now. _

_-I need to regain my power, fast. _

_-Hmm, since any of my orders can be overridden by the younger Tom Riddle, if I get a hold on Nagini, I can override the boy's orders as well. Yeah, the boy has probably figured this out already, and he may think Nagini is a more subtle bait for me, and have arranged traps for me in Hogwarts. However, I never said that I only have one pet snake, did I? As I'm going to Albania soon, the stupid Nagini can wait for its punishment. I just need to get to the Dark Forest before the boy's order gets there. But before that, I need a place to plan and prepare._

Therefore, the man was now in his luxurious condo in a modern apartment complex near the Center of London, where it was least likely to contain the spying eyes of snakes. He needed to plan more carefully this time round, and he needed some more physical strength before the long-distance portkey traveling.

-_The potions to remove Bellatrix's character from her body did work, but that woman had certainly skipped quite a number of meals and had lost the track of time in the meanwhile. And now, I am temporarily trapped in this weakened body as an unpleasant side effect. Also, if she had grabbed onto my cup earlier, I might have be able to catch Nagini before the stupid snake got to Hogwarts._

The man sighed, and continued his planning.

**The next Chapter will be up at 6 pm (EDT), 04/23/2015.**


	23. Chapter 23 The Search, Part I

Chapter 23.

The Search, Part I

6:48 pm, June 27th, 1993

In his headquarter office, Harry flipped another page of _Obscure Book of Potion Making_, and looked at Hermione with some admiration. They started reading the same book at the same time, and now she was already reading the last quarter of the book, while Harry hadn't finished half of it. And Harry would bet with a probability of 99%, that of what they both had read, Hermione remembered more than he did.

Three days ago, the ex-Potions master took on the responsibility of teaching all the potion tricks and lore he knew to Harry, Hermione and Draco, and that man had been quite a strict teacher even if he was no longer deliberately cruel. Harry wasn't against learning anything that could grant him more power than a third-year student could usually invoke, and he would be quite embarrassed if Hermione could cope with Severus' teaching speed while he couldn't. Harry guessed it might be harder for Draco to catch up, because, to be honest, Draco wasn't as Harry and Hermione as in reading books. Plus, knowing Severus, Harry guessed that the man would only arrange a longer reading list and some other training for his new godson, which Harry could only offer his sympathy to Draco.

All of a sudden, the ex-Potions master's bright patronus emerged in the room.

Even now, a part of Harry was still nervous at the pointless question that whether the evil ex-Potions master had decided to give a surprised quiz exam - in which Hermione would get one hundred points, while Harry would only get eighty-nine.

The news Severus wanted to deliver was much worse than an exam. The bright ball hissed in Severus' broken Parseltongue: "_There iss a tv-twinge in my Dark Mark, color turned d-darker. Ssame thing in April, nine...k-teen ninety-one. Narcisssa felt ssensse of losss. Need to ssee you, now. D-Draco with me?_"

Obviously, a Version 1.0 horcrux was activated by some unfortunate victim. And judging from Narcissa's sense of loss, the victim was probably Bellatrix Black.

Harry knew who was responsible for this, but he didn't have time to blame himself yet. Otherwise, he would have cursed himself for hours, for his reluctance in sinking into his dark side earlier, for his intentional negligence of who he was in the eyes of Bellatrix, along with a number of other things.

Now, as Harry was allowing Severus and Draco to come through the fireplace, his mind just concentrated on one question: _where is Voldemort now? _

Harry needed to vanquish him, _again_,before the man became all powerful, _again_. Time was quite limited.

Just as Harry began to translate Severus' Parseltongue message to Hermione, the ashen-faced ex-Potions master appeared from the fireplace alongside his new godson.

Harry needed Draco's raw talent, and there was no point hiding the bad news from Draco anyway, so Harry just nodded to the two Slytherins, and continued his explanation to Hermione. "In short, one of the Dark Lord's horcruxes was probably activated by Bellatrix."

Draco's face became white as paper upon hearing this sentence.

Severus nodded in agreement, then asked in Parseltongue: "_Am I to know, doess the Dark Lord hass ssome ym-improved ho-horcruxess, that grant full p-power insstantly?_"

Harry remembered that the ex-Potions master had heard a glimpse of the conversation between him and Voldemort in the graveyard, so there wasn't much point hiding the truth from the clever spy. As for Draco, Harry might have to take some time to think whether he was to know. Harry answered: "_Yess, he hass both the original horcruxess, and improved oness. Lasst time, he wass revived through an improved version. None of the improved oness hass been activated now, for he iss not dead. It iss the flawed original one, for now. You-Know-Who can posssibly regain power, ssome other way._"

Severus regained some composure after Harry spoke, while Draco and Hermione looked confused.

Just then, Mad-Eye's lion patronus jumped out from nowhere. In the harsh voice of the old auror, the patronus snarled. "Son, Lucius has just reported that his Dark Mark has turned darker, which he claimed also happened in April, 1991. I need to check with Snape. Lad, report where you are, Bones and I will be there soon. Constant vigilance!"

"I am in my headquarter in Hogwarts, and I will give you access to our location by the Floo. Professor Snape has reported the same phenomena, so we'd better get prepared for the worst." Harry answered, and began to waive his wand again in front of the fireplace.

The moment Harry moved away from the fireplace, Mad-Eye swirled out from it. The old auror eyed Draco with great suspicion, and Severus looked every part ready to defend his godson from Mad-Eye's curses. Luckily, those two refrained from firing hexes this time.

Then, Madam Bones landed.

One second later, a rabbit patronus appeared in the air, and in a slightly panicked female voice, it said: "This is a message from one hour in the future. We have checked the Death Eaters in Nurmengard, and their Dark Marks have all turned darker."

Everyone in this room knew what this meant.

Mad-Eye's magical eye was jumping in wild turns from Harry, to Draco then Severus, and his voice was harsh. "Son, if you have any special information on where Voldie might be, you'd better say it now. If he is in the condition that I suspect he is, then he probably can't perform much powerful magic at this moment. However, I am quite sure he has ways to regain his power very fast. Last time, it took him a few months to be able to retrieve Bellatrix from Azkaban. This time round, it's only going to be faster. I doubt he can slay most aurors in less than a second right now without any powerful magic, and I wouldn't be surprised if he can kill me in two or three days - while, actually, he might be able to kill me in the next second."

Although Harry's private estimation was a little bit more optimistic than Moody's on Voldemort's magical power level, he agreed on the old auror's estimates on the Dark Lord's danger level. After all, it was Harry who gave muggle books to Professor Quirrell, and who knew what a creative dark wizard would gain from those books.

The problem was, Harry couldn't think of anyplace that the enemy might be. If he were Voldemort, after seizing his pet basilisk from its hiding place, he could be at any random location on or near the earth's surface now.

Then the next question was: _where would Harry/Voldemort hide his pet basilisk? Hogwarts would be too obvious, and other places…_

Harry could almost assign an equal probability to anywhere else on planet earth.

Out of all people, someone Harry didn't think would offer much useful information for this question spoke. "Harry, I have read it somewhere that Salazar Slytherin could ask snakes to spy for him." As Draco avoided looking at either Mad-Eye or Madam Bones, he continued. "Father is a snake animagus, and I am pretty sure that he can speak to our pet snake at home. So maybe we can ask Father to talk to snakes in the wild."

Harry knew what Draco really meant, and what he couldn't say in front of Madam Bones. Draco was suggesting Harry to speak to snakes, and to ask all snakes to look for the other Tom Riddle.

-_Oh well, that is a good way to find Voldemort's pet basilisk as well. And… _

_And we have actually thought of this three days ago. You guys just dismissed this idea because you don't want to create sapient snakes. _Slytherin said through gritted teeth. _Therefore, now we are in a potentially world-ending disaster that our snakes don't have enough time to find the basilisk._

The other parts of Harry all fell silent.

Just as both Madam Bones and Mad-Eye began to give Draco suspicious glares, Severus suddenly tensed up. The man's face became blank, and his tunneling eyes unreadable. "I need to check on something, and I will be back one moment later."

The man in black disappeared in fireplace, and reappeared within several seconds. Although Harry didn't know what Severus' face would be like in front of Voldemort, he knew the level of blankness currently exhibited by that man might suffice.

"It appears that our gamekeeper Hagrid has kept quite some acromantulas in the Forbidden Forest without anyone knowing it." The double-agent said in his calm and smooth voice. "And there had been quite some unsettling in the swarm in the past few months, and an exodus of spiders from the castle had been taking place since about ten days ago. Hagrid never reported this to anyone, in the fear that his illegal action might be found out if he did. Mr. Potter, I am afraid we need to notify Headmistress McGonagall of this development. And Madam Bones, we may need your best aurors to conduct a thorough search of this castle, perhaps for snake monsters."

Upon Severus' words, Mad-Eye's magical eye began to jump in all directions, and his wand in a position to attack. And Madam Bone sent out her patronus immediately before Harry could send out his patronus in the form of a ball to Minerva.

As Harry started to wave his wand in front of the fireplace again, Severus summoned several potion protection goggles from his pouch, and started to distribute them. "I should have asked Hagrid more questions when I went to his cabin two days ago to get potion ingredients from him, while he seemed to be in some stress." The ex-Potions master sighed, and when he was handing a pair of goggles to Mad-Eye, he said, "Mad-Eye, I don't know how your magical eye works, but I guess you'd better cover all angles with glass."

Mad-Eye gave a vicious smile. "Good thinking, lad, but not good enough. I will cover my entire magical eye with glass, and if it is indeed a basilisk as I think, you just need to look at the direction of my eye to know which direction the monster the moment I become a stone. We need to ask Sprout for a mandrake, so that you guys can wake me up and use me as a constant basilisk detector." With these words, the old auror took out his large magical eye, waved his wand, and a shimmering layer of glass formed all over it. Mad-Eye put the glass-covered Eye of Vance back, then put on the potion goggles Severus provided.

When Harry finished wand work, Hufflepuff quietly said, _we should have made friends with Hagrid after we cleared his name, but we just thought he wasn't useful. Just think what we might be able to do if we know the information earlier._

And Slytherin suggested some idea that others might disagree at any other time. _We'd better not do anything else that we might regret later. Say, some aurors' goggles may fall off one way or the other, and they may get killed by a basilisk. Just stop your qualms and use snakes to explore the whole castle now. Other snakes can interbreed with basilisks, so they can't be killed by basilisks' eyes, what are you thinking? _

Harry knew he was trapped between a hard place and a rock, and he should valued the lives of innocent aurors much more.

Slytherin yelled at the other parts. _For Merlin's sake, Mad-Eye has offered himself as a basilisk detector to be repeatedly petrified! Imagine what would happen if the glass is broken at some point! _

Harry sighed inwardly. "Madam Bones, could you ask the aurors to wear goggles, and bring a lot of magical snakes when they came?"

Madam Bones paused a little, then asked. "Should I ask Lucius to speak to the snakes?"

Harry weighed the political consequences of revealing himself to be Heir of Slytherin, and letting Lucius be the hero.

Severus smirked. "As Mad-Eye and Mr. Potter already knew, I can speak some Parseltongue." The ex-Head of Slytherin smirked smugly at Madam Bones' gasps.

-_Oh well, we don't know what they know of each other. And I should have thought that for someone like Mad-Eye to be able to work with an ex-Death Eater, Dumbledore might have to provide some definitive evidence to Mad-Eye. And for Severus to let Madam Bones know… OK, Severus might think that he had solved a dilemma for his new Light Lord._

The Boy-Who-Lived knew that you could hardly expect obedience and on-the-spot creative problem solving skills at the same time from the same subordinate, but some dark corner of him still felt some unease:_ hey, if we were Dumbledore, Severus would never dare to do that. Let alone Vol- _

All the other parts of Harry shouted. _Shut up!_

At this point, Harry figured that he could no longer withhold another piece of important information, because withholding that might mean loss of innocent lives and precious opportunity. "Professor Snape, I know a place that you may consider letting the snakes check first. I will tell you when the snakes come."

A short moment after that, Headmistress Minerva McGonagall came in, and auror trios with goggles on all their faces began to file in through the fireplace. Quite a number of aurors looked to be more afraid of Madam Bones than the unknown threat, or the barrels of snakes that their colleagues were bringing in.

After five barrels and seven boxes of swarming snakes were put on the floor, and an auror reported that they had bought all the magical snakes in Great Britain and France, Severus put up privacy barriers to block the sights and sounds from all the aurors outside, and only Minerva, Harry, Severus and the snakes were in the circle.

"Headmistress McGonagall, and Professor Snape, there is a wall with an artistic carving of Salazar Slytherin wielding his wand in the Slytherin dungeon, and the Chamber of Secret is behind that wall. One needs to use Parseltongue to open the wall. And there are a lot of branches in the tunnels behind the wall, and I guess there are quite a number of walls and doors that you can only open with Parseltongue." Harry said to the surprised looking adults. "And I am not sure if all the doors can be opened by magical snakes, so Professor Snape and I may have to go down there after the snakes finished their first search."

Before the adults could say anything, Harry hissed to the hundreds of snakes in the barrels and boxes. "_My dear ssnakess._"

Before Harry could say anything else, there was a hissing commotion in the snakes magically restricted in their containers.

"_Parsselmouth?_"

"_Another King of Sserpentss?_"

"_Are we ssupposed to obey this one?_"

"_Not important. Original order iss to travel to Hogwartss, and I have come._"

"_You are not powerful enough, and you didn't come disscreetly._"

Harry and Severus looked at each other in absolute horror.

_Voldemort asked powerful snakes to come to Hogwarts? What purpose could he possibly have in mind? _Harry's imagination conjured up images of possible plots. _Are the snakes meant to be spies? Perhaps they are to be used in a ritual. The problem with only knowing the one order is that there were so many different things that might be accomplished with it._

Harry tried to calm himself, and asked. "_What wassoriginal order, and when wass it recieved?_"

"_All ssnakess sshould tell all ssnakess, that powerful ssnakess ssuch ass bassilisskss sshould come to Hogwartss disscreetly. Five monthss ago, before I wass caught._" One white snake with bright orange stripes offered.

"_Two._" A black baby snake said innocently.

"_You sstupid child-ssnake, that'ss when you were out of your egg. I recieved order eight monthss ago, wass why I wass caught near Hogssmeade._" Another black snake rebutted.

"_I knew of it sseven monthss passt from a newly captured magic-ssnakein sstore where magic-children receive petss. He was bought ssoon after._" A cobra said lazily.

The more Harry heard, the more horrified he became: _the Dark Lord sent things in motion more than eight months ago? Maybe even earlier... the moment he was transfigured? Did he have a Version __**3.0**__ horcrux system? Or perhaps the 2.0 horcruxes were activated despite him not being dead by definition?_

Something Harry used to call Hope, and now called it Wishful-thinking offered: _maybe it is still a very weak Version 1.0 horcrux, and that's why he is calling for all basilisks to come to Hogwarts. He killed Salazar's Monster, and when he needed all the ancient knowledge again, he called for all basilisks to see if Salazar's Monster had transferred the knowledge to other basilisks._

Rationality caught on Hope in time:_ Even so, all the Death Eater's marks have darkened today. Therefore, the most likely scenario is that Voldemort found a victim tonight. _

Slytherin sadly added, _and this disaster only happened because we have been reluctant to create sapient snakes. _

Hufflepuff was equally frustrated. _And it is because we didn't tell the adults about the Chamber of Secrets earlier._

Severus asked in broken and quivering Parseltongue. "_Any ssnake knew the ou-order for … more than a-eight monthss?_"

"_Another, another! Which one to obey?_"

"_Not good, though. I guesss, ten monthss?_"

"_I know, eleven!_"

Severus' face was blank, but his lips became whiter as he addressed Harry in hisses. "_I sshall y-enter the Chamber of Ssecl-rretss. I ssuggest you sstay here. If Mad-Eye and I were to d-die, conssider calling for help from our ku-cousinss acrosss the sea, or any other nation that ssuitss your tasste. I ssuss...pect mosst will be willing to aid the p...Boy-Who-Lived_"

"_I-_" Harry wanted to refuse, but could not help but to be aware of the fact that he simply couldn't take any risks himself.

Slytherin quietly suggested: _see how lightly Severus proposed to call for help from the United States? A good and loyal fighter as he is, he probably doesn't have any place in international politics. The logical thing to do is to let him do the fighting._

Slytherin's suggestions just made Harry felt worse, but time was limited, and they needed to start doing things _now_.. "_Thank you, Teacher Ssnape. Be careful and notify me of anything unusual by guardian charm. Ssalazar Sslytherin'ss Monsster iss probably bassilissk. Dark Lord probably killed it, but cannot be certain._"

"_Ssacl-crificing bassiliskss gainss power? Sshould you tell me thiss much?_" Severus' face betrayed his shock, then his face returned to its neutral pose, with some hints of sadness, if you knew him well enough to notice.. "_Do not dissturb sleeping dragon, Hogwartss motto. Sslytherin may have left long-lived monsster ass v-final dev-fensse of sschool, and only -_"

Harry knew Severus' guess was right from a certain point of view. Salazar might think the knowledge his monster taught his descendents could help defend Hogwarts from the possible invasion of muggle armies, but the basilisk itself was clearly not a weapon. It was a library.. And Harry probably had said too much. "_I cannot confirm or deny at thiss moment, but I believe Slytherin left monsster with good intentionss._"

The ex-Head of Slytherin closed his eyes for a moment, and when they opened, two endless tunnels stared at Harry. "_Good to know thiss much._"

Harry's inner Slytherin began to praise him,_ See? We can almost ask Severus to do nearly anything when he's in this mental state, he seems perfectly content to willingly sacrifice his life_.

Hufflepuff was in tears, and Gryffindor started to throw punches at Slytherin.

Harry shook off his emotions, and hissed orders to the snakes. "_I am Heir of Sslytherin. You will obey all orderss from man next to me. Explore areass you are asssigned, and report back to him._"

As Severus began to give the snakes orders, Harry began to contemplate another matter he hadn't thought of. It was not a pleasant thought, but it had to be considered: _the few left-over dementors locked in the Department of Mysteries. They would be a powerful weapon against Voldemort._

Harry gritted his teeth, and called Madam Bones into the circle of privacy. "Madam Bones, I wonder if you could get two or three dementors ready for transportation. And Headmistress McGonagall, could you let the dementors in once they are needed? If my guesses are correct, the Dark Lord is quite vulnerable to dementors, so they might be useful to partially incapacitated him."

Minerva gasped, and nodded reluctantly; while Madam Bones gave a wolfish smile.

As the adults started the search, Minerva went to work on the wards to let dementors in, and Harry, Hermione, and Draco were guarded by Madam Amelia Bones and a number of top aurors in the headquarter office. Seeing how upset Hermione and Draco were, Harry suggested that some aurors should be sent to guard Dr. and Dr. Granger, and Lady Malfoy. Hermione and Draco became calmer after that.

In the meanwhile, Hagrid was arrested by the aurors. As Veritaserum and legilimency were used in the following interrogation, within an hour, Harry was notified the result: the gamekeeper had raised hundreds of acromantulas in the Forbidden Forest for more than forty years, because he considered the human-language speaking giant spiders as harmless fluffy pets. Unfortunately, those "lovely" animals listed human beings on the top of their favorite prey list. And the only reason that nobody in the school with hundreds of children had been eaten yet was that the dying acromantula patriarch named Aragog had some verbal agreement with Hagrid not to harm any human. Moreover, if it were not for the sudden increase of snakes in the Forbidden Forest during the past year, some spiders that were no longer under Aragog's control might have began their preying practice on human beings already.

If Harry were to hear the interrogation report at any other time, he would be outraged. Now, the presence of acromantulas just created a perfect excuse in front of the world for the sudden commotion in Hogwarts; and Rubeus Hagrid just became another example of how reckless people could be.

Harry could see that Draco refrained from commenting on the unwitting reproductive choice Hagrid's father had. Although Harry didn't consciously hold any prejudice on half-giants, but he did agree with Draco on a certain unspeakable level, for Harry wouldn't want his child to inherit genes that might cause cognitive deficiency, either. Normally, Hufflepuff might berate Harry for his hypocrisy, but all parts of Harry were too busy to care.

At around ten o'clock, two snakes found a pile of acromantula limbs in a narrow tunnel in the Chamber of Secrets. Several minutes later, Severus' patronus reported that those looked like vomits that came from, not a human being, but from huge and highly venomous snakes, and they were relatively new.

Then Harry generated a hypothesis that could connect the dots: _perhaps one of Voldemort's horcruxes resided in a snakes, lurking in the Forbidden Forest for a year, calling for basilisks to give him a better body and/or knowledge, and he just occupied Bellatrix tonight. But then, there is something still not quite right… _

Twenty minutes later, Mad-Eye found signs of newly-shifted walls near the vomit. By this point, Headmistress Minerva McGonagall had to leave the three "children" to the care of aurors, and went to check the newly-shifted walls. The result was as expected: it was moved by some forces higher than the current Headmistress.

-_Salazar's monster might have had children, and its children came to Hogwarts as ordered, and might have taught Voldemort knowledge, and …_

Harry know what was going to happen, and what might have already happened. Harry clenched his fists.

Then, again, there was something not quite fitting. Therefore, Harry had to turn to his friends. "Draco, Hermione, and Madam Bones, please help me think of this. If Salazar Slytherin's monster was assigned some higher power than Hogwarts Headmaster or Headmistress by Salazar Slytherin, would you think that he would assign the same power to the kids of the monster?"

Draco thought for a while. "If every baby basilisk was assigned the same power, it would be a flaw in the plot. But since Godfather can open the Chamber of Secrets by learning Parseltongue, I am not sure."

-_Well, that could be some inherent flaw in Salazar's plots, that he didn't consider the multiplication of offsprings. But still…_

Harry's inner critic offered,_ there might be a third plotter in the scheme. Parseltongue wasn't as rare as we thought. Plus, there were other Founders. We know the Weasley twins are the Heirs of Gryffindor, and people rumored that Cedric to have found the Chamber of Hufflepuff, so maybe we shouldn't confine ourselves in our thinking. _

_-But if it is related to other Founders, why snakes? It's more likely to involve other Heirs of Slytherin. And since we already knew Salazar had two plots to bypass Interdict of Merlin, maybe he had more plots. Hmm._

"Do any of you know some rare stories about Salazar Slytherin? There might be something important hiding there." Harry asked.

Harry was then bombarded with quite a number of stories from Hermione, Draco and Madam Bones. The problem was, there were too many stories, and Harry didn't have enough time to discern the truth from hundreds of possible lies.

When it was half past twelve, Severus' patronus reported that the snakes found a large area in the tunnels were scorched by Fiendfyre many years ago, and a certain wall near there would lead to a larger area which was almost completely melted as well.

No more interesting things were discovered in the Chamber of Secrets later, except several scraps of recent snake sloughs and bones of rats and other small animals here and there. Severus had dispatched the snakes to enter the pipelines and conduits to check for further signs, and continued to lead the search in the castle; and Mad-Eye led a number of aurors to the Forbidden Forest to catch acromantulas in the hope that the spiders might know something, and also in the dim hope that the enemies might be hiding in the Forest.

When the discussion of Salazar's secrets began to dwindle into circles around three o'clock, Harry decided that they were going to sleep for a while.


	24. Chapter 24 The Search, Part II

Chapter 24.

The Search, Part II, Growing Up

7:06 am, June 28th, 1993

Severus' patronus woke everyone up in a jolt. In the ex-Head of Slytherin's smooth voice, the bright ball said, "I am still doing the headcount, but I am sure that quite a number of snakes went missing, especially the more powerful and venomous ones."

Harry rubbed his eyes, climbing up from his transfigured camp bed, and felt somewhat relieved: _whoever the enemy is, he or she still needs more snakes to complete his or her mission, and the enemy or the enemy's paw was still in Hogwarts until the last several hours._

As Madam Bones sent out her patronus with a relieved smile, Harry thought of a certain powerful and venomous Blue Krait who was more intelligent and who might be able to provide more information than snakes with tracking spells. The problem was, Harry wasn't sure how Draco would take this.

_Oh, haven't we done with useless qualms now? Remember the disastrous results of our other ethical qualms?_ Slytherin sneered. _Just threaten the dementors properly, and dispatch them to prey on Voldemort the moment Lucius sends a mental call to the dementors. Do your multiplications and Imagine how much safer the world would be if this plan were successful. _

_But we don't want Draco to lose his father again. _Hufflepuff said in a small voice. _Especially, if the enemy is indeed Voldemort/Bellatrix, it is equal to handing "enemy's blood" to them._

_We can let Lucius drink some interesting potions before we let him search the pipelines. Mad-Eye may know some._ Slytherin said amidst horrified looks from all his other parts. _Or, just a cube of ice transfigured from a liter of frozen sulfuric acid that due to last only forty-eight hours. This way, if Voldemort uses Lucius' blood to revive, we will see some quite interesting effects. And if Lucius comes back before that, the Stone can make sure that he wouldn't be hurt. Plus, we can make sure that Lucius wouldn't try to run away. _

_What would happen if Lucius was captured?_ Hufflepuff screamed at the top of his lungs._ Lucius wouldn't have any brain left this time!_

_Remember that Dumbledore had sent our parents to die? It's probably the time for us to learn the same. _Slytherin ignored the screams, and calmly suggested._ We can revive Lucius after we figure out how to tear apart Reality and Time, right?_

Harry didn't dare to look at Draco, whose face was turning whiter by the seconds.

A few seconds later, after Madam Bones signed some documents handed to her through the Floo, Mad-Eye Moody appeared in the fireplace with Lucius in full-body magical restraints.

Apparently, the old auror had made the difficult decision for Harry, again.

Lord Malfoy was allowed with his expensive and elegant robes, his hands were well manicured, and his long white mane was well groomed, for he was still Lord of a Noble and Most Ancient house, and he was not yet convicted. However, the unnatural paleness in his looks indicated something had already been taken care of.

Mad-Eye's lips twisted into a vicious smile, "Lucius has kindly offered to lead the search for the missing snakes. Haven't you, Lord Malfoy?"

Draco jumped up from his transfigured camp bed, reaching for his snake-headed wand, and only to be stopped by his father's stern stares. "Draco, the Department of Law Enforcement has agreed to drop some of the most baseless charges, and I might be able to have home visits for good behavior." Lucius' voice became a little softer. "Moreover, I am happy that I would be in your Adult Ceremony and to watch you become the next Lord Malfoy."

Then Lucius nodded to Madam Bones, "Madam Bones, would you please call for my wife Narcissa and Draco's godfather Severus here? The ceremony will be brief."

Harry could tell that Draco was fighting back his tears. Then, the blond boy began to quickly pluck protective magical artifacts out from his pouch and from his garments.

The senior Malfoy's voice cracked a little, with a bitter smile on his face. "Draco, Auror Moody already gave me the magical artifacts that I am allowed to use. You keep yours, and be safe yourself."

Draco's hand trembled, and his entire body tensed up.

From the hatred in the blond boy's eyes, Harry feared that Draco might be able to manage a killing curse toward Mad-Eye at this very moment. It was all good if your subordinates had some friendly rivalry, but mortal hatred was something Harry had to avoid. He needed to form a rescue plan, fast. "Ahh, Lord Malfoy, I think there is a highly useful charm that you may be able to learn now. With a few tricks, the Patronus charm can deliver messages and provide you with more protection."

The white-haired ex-Death Eater was unsure, "Lord Potter, I have tried after I know about Draco's, but -"

Harry eyed the old auror who was about to say something, and pleaded. "Privacy charms, please?"

Mad-Eye gave an angry grunt, and applied a number of privacy charms around Harry, Draco, Lucius and himself. As the outside became blurs, the old auror's magical eye was constantly on Lucius.

Then Harry spoke in Parseltongue. "_There iss ssome trickss that Sseveruss can teach you, sso a killing cursse may not kill you insstantly. I am not ssure, I only tried it once._"

Lucius looked at Harry in open shock. Slowly, he spoke with a frown, "_that iss how… Oh. Ressurrection and killing cursse are opposite of each other? Sseveruss ssaid he ssacrificed ssome of hiss magic and life to bring me back, and he wanted me to live than to die…_"

-_Well, Lucius is smart, and his intuitions are good. He had thought that I was the Dark Lord after Hermione's trial, and in a sense, he was right._

"Auror Moody, would you free me for a while? I shall try as Lord Potter suggested." Lucius said, then turned to Harry and hissed. "_No intention to hurt you or yourss, or to run away. Only tesst Patronuss charm._"

Harry nodded to Mad-Eye. The old auror grudgingly removed some magical restrictions from Lucius, then aimed his wand at Lucius' chest, "should I trust your cunning, Malfoy?"

Lucius gave Mad-Eye a cold look, and accepted the snake-headed cane that Draco handed him. The ex-Death Eater took the stance, and twisted the wand precisely while looking at his son. "Expecto Patronum!"

A faint layer of bright silver smoke came out of the wand tip. Harry guessed that smoke might be able to hold-off dementors, but it was definitely not enough to block the killing curse.

Lucius looked at Harry, frowning. "_Iss there ssomething that I have not guesssed out yet?_"

Harry wasn't exactly sure how a Version 1.5 patronus worked, and as for more information…

Slytherin sneered, _Lucius can't manage a truth patronus even if he is told the secrets, why are you hesitating whether to tell him the true secret?_

Then Hufflepuff quietly suggested,_ although the true patronus may be hard for most people, but we should let Draco and Mad-Eye know the secrets of Severus' patronus. They are also in danger now, remember?_

"Mr. Moody, is Professor Snape here yet? If so, could you let him in?" Harry asked.

A moment later, the unkempt ex-Potions master walked in with a strong smell of sewage, and his expensive robe - possibly given to him by Narcissa and Draco - was spotted with sludge and moss.

Before Severus and Mad-Eye could enter another round of stare contest, Harry quickly said, "Professor Snape, could you tell the secrets of your patronus to Draco, Lucius and Mr. Moody? My guesses are it can help to block the killing curse in case you absolutely can't dodge it. It may not stop the curse completely, but it may help to increase the chance of survival."

"What?" Both the normal eye and the magical eye of Alastor Moody became enlarged, then his face twisted. "Son, are you sure Snape should?"

Severus and Draco was quite shocked as well.

"I don't want any of you to encounter more danger than you absolutely have to." Harry said firmly, every part the Boy-Who-Lived that he was.

Severus slowly nodded, and said. "The emotion needed to fuel my patronus is not something traditional considered happy thoughts. I would imagine the grief and emotion of rejection as I heard the death of someone I cared, and I need to imagine how good it would be if the deceased could be alive. Some happy memories about that particular person would also help."

Draco, Lucius and Mad-Eye fell into silence for a while. Then Draco pulled out his old wand from his pouch, and took the stance. The blond boy looked at his revived father with tears glistening in his eyes, and shouted: "Expecto Patronum!"

A basketball-sized bright ball jumped out of Draco's wand tip.

Draco seemed to be surprised by his own patronus, then looked at his father, as if unsure of whether he should have done that.

Lucius smiled to his son with encouragement, proud and a hint of loss, "Draco, my son, you are truly an adult and a Lord Malfoy today." The blond man waved his snake-headed wand, and said, "Expecto Patronum."

A bright ball that was slightly smaller and fainter than Draco's exited the Malfoy family wand, and approached Draco's patronus. If light balls could hug, Harry would say that the two patronuses were hugging each other.

Lucius looked at the merging pure lights with some longing, as if hoping this moment could last forever, then asked, "Auror Moody, can we invite my wife Narcissa in for the ceremony?"

Mad-Eye ignored Lucius, deep in his own thoughts. Then the old auror snarled. "Damn it, too many have died! Expecto Patronum!"

A large aura of pure light left Moody's wand. For less than half a second, Harry thought he might have seen neck and shoulder, but the cloud consolidated into a large ball instead.

"I guess there is still some riddle that I need to solve." Mad-Eye twisted his wand back at Lucius.

"Believe me, you can't do it even if you have solved the riddle, so don't waste your time." Severus smirked. "And I gather neither you nor I has the need to kill dementors anyway, that is, of course, in case you can have the few reserved ones in check."

Mad-Eye gave Severus a suspicious look, grunted something, and started to wave his wand.

Harry looked at the smirking black-haired man in shock and admiration: _Severus has solved the riddle?! He is surely sharper in magic than I thought. And a note to self: understanding the secrets of powerful magic, even the light ones, does not mean one can perform those, the same goes with Hermione's inability to cast the killing curse._

As Narcissa walked into the circle, the tall and slim witch held her wand tight, her eyes half on her husband and son, and half on Mad-Eye who was jabbing her with a number of charms and interesting looking magical devices. Narcissa was as elegantly dressed as her husband, but her blue eyes were blood-shot, puffy circles were visible through make-ups and beautification charms, and her cheeks were a bit shallower than Harry saw her last time.

After Mad-Eye reluctantly finished his checking, Narcissa smiled as if nothing bothersome had happened, and reached into her pouch. "Auror Moody, I was wholeheartedly delighted to hear that your colleagues have enjoyed my cookies, so I have prepared some more."

As the old auror's magical eye darted back and forth between the large luxuriously decorated box with snake ribbons and the innocent looking noblewoman, Harry could tell this was a deliberate move to create more work for the old auror who was constantly on guard.

Narcissa then turned to her husband who was smirking with proud and encouragement, "Lucius, my dear, I am so happy that you can be in Draco's ceremony today."

"Yes, my darling, our son is truly a grown man today." Lucius' smirk was replaced by a genuine smile as he pointed to the two hugging light balls, his head perceptibly higher, and spoke with a quiet pride, "and I am pleased that Draco has found broader light of life now."

Draco opened his mouth at this point, as if he wanted to say something to his father, but an assured smile from Lucius stopped him.

"That is -" Narcissa looked at the patronuses, a little unsure.

"Draco's patronus and mine; aren't they beautiful together?" Lucius reached out, and petted the brighter of the two hugging patronuses, while Draco blushed a little.

Mad-Eye's normal eye rolled, while his magical eye jumped all directions with some emphasis on the Malfoys as usual. "Be quick, you are wasting your own borrowed time!" He snarled.

Narcissa's eyes widened, then horrible apprehension began to appear on her face.

Lucius smiled to his wife, and then turned to Draco. The white-haired Malfoy patriarch put the snake-headed cane firmly into Draco's hand. His voice was smooth and unequivocal. "Draco Lucius Malfoy, my dear son, you are a true adult and a true Lord Malfoy today. "

Then Lucius took the three-snake ring handed to him by Narcissa, and put it on Draco's left middle finger. "Draco, bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh, may you have eternal health and happiness, may the world flourish because of you, and you will be the greatest Lord Malfoy that has yet lived."

As Lucius embraced Draco in his arms and kissed his forehead, Harry could tell that Draco was about to cry, but the new Lord Malfoy suppressed his emotions in front of Mad-Eye who was pointing his wand at them.

Then Narcissa also hugged Draco, and gave her blessings. "Draco, my son, fruit of my loins, may you have strength and wisdom, may you find love and marry a wonderful bride, and may you father many magical children."

Draco visibly blushed at his mother's blessings, and the fever became more heated when Narcissa kissed his forehead and cheeks.

Severus stepped in front of his new godson, and cleared his throat, some softness foreign to those black eyes took an effort to emerge. "Draco, my son in the eyes of the gods above and our ancestors in Atlantis, may you gain knowledge and powerful magic, -" the man stopped for a while, as if searching for words, "may you find true friendship." The black-haired man seemed to have fallen back to his comfort zone as he added his last sentence, "and I shall do my best to offer my protection and guidance."

When Severus wrapped his arms around his slender godson, the man was a bit stiff in his movements. Severus quickly brushed his lips on Draco's forehead, then patted Draco's shoulder.

"Alright, Lucius Malfoy, it's time for you to do your job now." Mad-Eye's words won him stares from Severus and the Malfoys.

"Emm, there's one more thing," Harry interjected, "I need to go and properly threaten the dementors the aurors brought here, so that they can respond to Lucius' mental calling if he encounters You-Know-Who."

Lucius raised one eyebrow, then nodded politely to Harry. "No words can describe my gratitude, Lord Potter."

Slytherin quietly said, _well, Lucius knows dementors work by expectations anyway. And should we give us plus one point in manipulation for letting Mad-Eye be the bad guy and appearing benign ourselves?_

_Shut up._

Note:

In canon, Book 2, the young Tom Riddle had said in Parseltongue "_Speak to me, Slytherin, the greatest of Hogwarts Four_" to open the gate for Salazar's monster. Therefore, in canon, Parseltongue did contain names.

If we assume Salazar built Parseltongue based on his own knowledge, why would such a proud man who called himself "the greatest of Hogwarts Four" not include his own name in the language?

Moreover, making up translations of people's names can't be too different from making up nouns that describes magical items, such as horcrux. In the process of conjuring hundreds and thousands of nouns describing spells, rituals, and lore into Parseltongue, it was quite reasonable to include people's names, especially in the lore part.

Third, a lot of names in Harry Potter did exist in Salazar's time, and it is reasonable to believe he knew them. Lucius, Severus and Draco are relatively common names in ancient Rome; Hermione, Minerva are names of goddesses in Greek/Roman mythology; Harry/Henry/Harrold is a common English name since the Middle Ages. I assume Salazar should know these names from his Latin learning or pursuit of Greek/Roman lore or just by teaching in Hogwarts, though I admit Salazar might not know the names such as Xiaoguang Li or Padma Patil.

**I am sorry that ******I need to postpone the next update, because I am **waiting for my betas to give me feedback on my next chapter.**


	25. Chapter 25 The Search, Part III

I sincerely thank Jared, Joe, Speck TheKitty, Ardvarkeating101, and Kuilin for betaing this chapter.

Chapter 25.

The Search, Part III, To Be Nice

8:04 am, June 28th, 1993

Harry's mood became grimmer by the minute as he heard Bahry's report on the acromantulas.

Per Harry's request, Mad-Eye had negotiated with the English-speaking spiders last night, asking them to move somewhere else where there weren't vulnerable children. To Harry's relief, the acromantula patriarch Aragog had agreed provisionally, given that Harry could procure a suitable replacement forest. Mad-Eye's probing had also turned up information on the snake population of the Forbidden Forest.

For a few hours, Harry had thought with some relief that he had prevented a war between sapient beings.

Unfortunately, at about seven thirty in the morning, Auror McCusker, who was on watch in the Forbidden Forest, was almost killed in an ambush by two acromantulas the size of bulls. If Auror Bahry, who had served the Department of Law Enforcement for 101 years, was not by his side at that time, McCusker would have lost his head instead of his wand arm. Auror Bahry didn't hesitate to use the killing curse on the spider that tried to bite off McCusker's head, nor did he hesitate to use legilimency on the other spider he stunned.

What Auror Bahry's legilimency discovered horrified those who heard: the acromantulas attacked McCusker because they thought he overheard their secret negotiation with Auror John Dawlish, who promised them land and the flesh of hundreds of Muggles from some hellhole in Africa in exchange for their knowledge on the pipeline system of Hogwarts; or if the acromantulas would prefer white prey, land and Muggles in the former Yugoslavia could be provided.

A confused Auror John Dawlish was quickly arrested, and signs of legilimency and the Confundus Charm were found on him.

While Madam Bones and Mad-Eye were busy checking all the Aurors for traces of legilimency and other charms, Harry considered the implication of this.

-_We are not only fighting Voldemort; There are many other dark wizards lurking out there, all seeking the Stone for themselves. These enemies might not be as intelligent as Voldemort, but they are no less cruel. They wouldn't even blink an eye to use hundreds of Muggles as acromantula fodder to discover the pipelines and floor designs of Hogwarts. And judging from the old cobwebs in the Chamber of Secrets, not even Salazar's secret base was safe from the spying eyes of the giant spiders. The spiders might know something about the Room of Requirement as well._

-_Wizards who would form an alliance with man-eating acromantulas wouldn't hesitate to ally themselves with Voldemort, given that Voldemort __could potentially offer them much more__. _

_-We need to control the acromantulas, and control the news of Voldemort's reappearance for as long as possible. But given the interested eyes, I doubt suppressing the news of Voldemort's potential return is possible at all._

Harry didn't have enough time or energy to blame himself on a lot of things along the lines of "why did I decide to send the prisoners to Nurmengard" and "why is the Ministry still leaking like a sieve". He needed to deal with the acromantula crisis first. He couldn't afford to let the acromantulas offer important information about the Hogwarts defense system to anyone.

"Is Aragog plotting to ally with another dark wizard, or are some other spiders plotting against Aragog?" asked Draco, who was always keen on the political structures of any group.

From the blankness and confusion on Auror Bahry's face, such questions had never occurred to the second oldest Auror currently serving the Ministry. It was an easy mistake to make; reducing each individual monstrous spider to a member of The Swarm of Monstrous Spiders. He had to send his Patronus to his colleagues who were guarding the captured acromantula to get an answer.

A few minutes later, a mare Patronus jumped into view, and it said in a somewhat disturbed female voice: "The spiders plotting to sell the secrets of Hogwarts are conspiring against their own patriarch Aragog as well. By the way, I think one was eating something that looks like a child's arm - I need to look further into this."

Everyone in the office became uneasy upon hearing the last part of the report.

"Damn Hagrid!" Mad-Eye spat. "How could he trust promises from a half-blind spider?"

Madam Bones' face slightly twitched, but she offered, "Legilimency on Hagrid last night also revealed that he had offered food to werewolves hiding in the Forbidden Forest many years ago. But last year, when Mr. Lupin went into the Forbidden Forest looking for the pack to tell them that the Stone could cure lycanthropy, the pack of werewolves were nowhere to be found, it's possible the acromantulas didn't technically eat humans."

A number of Aurors became much more relaxed when they heard Madam Bones' explanation, but Harry just felt worse: _some CHILD got infected by a curable disease, and the rest of the wizarding world just stopped considering him or her as a human being anymore! And a sapient spider has eaten another sapient being, perhaps even alive, and that's actually part of the nature of the giant spider…_

Harry's brain wanted to stop working, for some protection mechanism in it tried to shut down and reject the horrible scene that was being produced by his vivid imagination.

The world outside Harry's brain continued without Harry's input, and Draco was already suggesting, "Then maybe we should ally with Aragog, and help it to get rid of the rebels."

All the employees of the Department of Law Enforcement nodded with agreement. From the looks on their faces, everyone of them would dearly prefer the acromantulas kill each other until there were no spiders left in the Forbidden Forest.

Harry wanted to protest - he wanted to point out that acromantulas were sapient beings with intelligence almost matching that of wizards, and the death of sapient beings for any reason would be a horrible thing - but he knew that would be a lost cause.

At this moment, Harry realized that how small and how fragile a world that Hermione and himself were in. Not even Draco was close to that world of idealism. Before Harry could convince Draco of the innate value of lives of acromantulas, the image of Draco in Harry's head already offered rebuttal: _Harry, you had said that since there was no reproductive isolation among wizards, Muggles, veelas, goblins, vampires, and werewolves, so we were still the same species. But nobody has ever successfully mated with an acromantula, or manticore, or sphinx, or quintaped. Therefore, they are not the same species as us._

Harry knew that he'd better not give Draco a chance to make the being/beast argument, for more Aurors would be even less likely to change their minds after hearing Draco's argument.

_Or, at least, when the Aurors' lives are still being threatened by the sapient cannibalistic spiders, they are not going to be convinced by your the ideals._ Slytherin snapped. _We killed thirty-six Death Eaters who were definitely sapient human beings when our life was threatened, you hypocrite! We only began to remember our ethics because our life was not the one at stake at this moment. _

"Hmm, Draco, could you go there and give Aragog some advice on how to rule his offspring better?" Harry pleaded. "And if possible, could you also try to minimize the number of deaths in the acromantula population?"

Lady Narcissa Malfoy looked as if she could tear Harry into pieces with her slender and fragile hands, while her son, who knew Harry much better, just nodded and said, "OK, Harry. And General Chaos, I need to borrow some items from you."

With that, the General of Dragon Army requested some magical and Muggle items from Harry, and, more importantly, the protection of several top Aurors from Madam Bones.

Narcissa became visibly calmer the moment Draco began to address the four Auror trios assigned to him. Harry guessed that she saw what game the new Lord Malfoy was trying to play now, and Lady Malfoy was not going to intervene in the games of the new Lord of her Ancient and Most Noble Family.

At this point, Mad-Eye snapped. "Lord Malfoy, how about I go and protect you?"

Draco smirked, increasingly mirroring his father. "Auror Moody, that would be wonderful."

Harry could tell that Draco was fighting for dominance with Mad-Eye, but since there would be less risk of Draco dying with Mad-Eye in the Forbidden Forest, Harry wasn't going to complain.

About thirty minutes after Draco had departed with the Aurors, the new Lord Malfoy reported by two-way mirror that Aragog's discipline of his disobedient offspring was going well - the colony of acromantulas in the Forbidden Forest were obviously untrained in the fine arts of politics besides direct killings, so even some basic maneuvers on Draco's part could outsmart most spiders.

Harry was a tad relieved when he heard this development.

However, after this morning's _Daily Prophet_ arrived, Headmistress McGonagall had to leave and deal with a public relations crisis, with letters and parents showing up at Hogwarts demanding to know why "some dim-wit half-giant" who raised man-eating acromantulas had been hired to look after Hogwarts grounds.

Harry agreed with the parents' outrage in principle, but he couldn't let the angry guardians into the Forbidden Forest to hunt down the acromantulas themselves. For one thing, Aurors were relatively powerful wizards, and one Auror had been confirmed to be under the influence of legilimency and confunded - who knew how many of these livid parents outside Hogwarts were under some form of mind-control charms?

-_I need Draco's opinion on the public relations stuff._

Harry reached for his two-way mirror, only to see that the other side was already requesting communication.

Draco's slightly worried face appeared in the mirror. "Harry, the swarm of rebelling spiders suddenly started fighting and killing Aragog's faction. I need to help Aragog stabilize the front. I think the outside dark wizards got in touch with the spiders again."

-_So much for peaceful solutions._

When the General of Dragon Army shifted his position from Aragog's political advisor to the spider patriarch's military advisor in a civil war, Severus had to dispatch several hundred of his thinning snake army into the Forbidden Forest to prevent the acromantulas from running away into either Hogwarts or the wrong hands, while Lucius continued his search without being notified of his son's adventure.

As time went by, Draco's report began to take on a hint of confusion and panic. "Harry, I just gave Aragog the light potion you used to blind Sunshine and Dragon in our first-year fight, along with transfigured glasses, because I think since acromantulas have eight eyes, they must be affected by the light more than we are. Well, the potion didn't work so well in the much denser woods in this part of Forbidden Forest, but that's not the point. I think the enemy is mocking me: spiders on the other side just used a fire-light potion that can ignite trees and produce blazing light. And remember my last report, when I told you that the enemy spiders were exhibiting better guerilla tactics than I was? Now I think the mastermind behind the enemy spiders is showing me how Hermione, you, and I could do better in our latest mock battle against the allied forces of fourth and fifth year armies if we didn't hesitate to take casualties."

-_What… Professor Quirrell, is that you?_

As the background noise of screaming spiders and stunning hexes lowered, Draco's voice suddenly took on another level of horror. "Harry, the enemy retreated for no reason at all! I had thought I would need to sacrifice at least one fourth of Aragog's faction to resist this round of attack. Now... now the enemy is giving us time to rest!"

Professor Quirrell's cold and somewhat interested eyes appeared in Harry's mind.

-_He is taking his time. He is enjoying this moment when someone is able to put up a mockery of resistance in front of him._

Mad-Eye's scarred face suddenly replaced Draco's with the blond boy's protesting voice in the background. "Lad, I see the reason for the retreat. The enemy acromantulas all rushed to devour the body of Giuliani, a dark wizard from Italy. When they couldn't get a bite of Giuliani, they bite each other. Anyway, Giuliani wasn't killed by spider bites; it appears our dear enemy mastermind finished him off."

-_Voldemort was annoyed by the presence of another dark wizard in a territory that he considered his and his alone, so he killed other dark wizards who tried to lay their hands on Hogwarts. And that's…_

-_That's possibly what Voldemort considered a nice thing to do. _

_-Remember teaching Voldemort to be nicer, and how he promised to try? After that, he killed MacNair, maybe he made a horcrux then, maybe he didn't even need an incantation to make a "simple" Version 1.0 horcrux, he just did it with a pebble or something like that. Afterwards, since he didn't get a chance to hide that particular horcrux, it can easily be touched by a magical animal or something, then… _

Harry fought down the chills in his spine, and said in a quivering voice: "Auror Moody, Draco, pull out all our Aurors, and retreat back to the castle now."

_-If my guesses are correct, Voldemort would finish off all acromantulas "for us", because he may consider killing all giant spiders who tried to sell secrets of Hogwarts a "nice" thing. He may also consider instigating a spider civil war a fun thing to do as well._

_-Oh, Professor Quirrell, please consider letting Draco and Mad-Eye leave unscathed a nice thing to do._

Hermione, who knew the truth of what happened that night one year ago, looked at Harry in silent horror. She, too, understood.

Madam Bones was confused, but she agreed to withdraw the troops from the Forbidden Forest. The enemy was obviously stronger and there was no point losing Aurors in a foregone battle.

Just as the view from the two-way mirror swirled when Mad-Eye tossed it back to Draco, the ex-Head of Slytherin's empty voice was transmitted through the two-way mirror together with the light of a Patronus. "Mad-Eye, whatever you are doing now, I need you to turn back an hour, and trace Lucius' every movement in the pipelines near the Headmistress' office."

Draco's face took on a grey shade.

Then Harry heard Mad-Eye's curse. "Damn, I can't! Time doesn't allow it!"

The new Lord Malfoy shrieked.


	26. Chapter 26 The Search, Ex-Lord Malfoy

I sincerely thank Jared, Joe, Speck TheKitty, Ardvarkeating101, and Kuilin for betaing this chapter.

* * *

Chapter 26.

The Search, Interlude, The Ex-Lord Malfoy

10:18 am, June 28th, 1993

Lucius slithered through a meandering narrow sewer where a Boomslang went missing. The Blue Krait wanted to close his nostrils and mouth to avoid the disgusting smells, but he knew he would need all his senses to detect the presence of any enemy as soon as possible. Therefore, he had to open his nostrils wide, to move his forked tongue swiftly to all directions to better catch any trace of smell, while his abdominal nerves sensed any vibrations.

The phenomena here were pretty similar to the other five locations that Lucius had already explored: all the traces of the missing snakes seemed normal until a certain point, where the smells and marks of snake crawlings just disappeared. There was no sign of a struggle, only some faint traces of recent pipeline movements.

Lucius knew he might miss the feeling of moving along pipelines as a snake in his long years in prison, but at this moment, he just hoped the Boy-Who-Lived could figure out some other way to find the Dark Lord and vanquish the nightmarish man again.

Although that possibility should have been a happy thought, Lucius still felt a sense of loss when he thought of it. He had enjoyed power and influence all his life, and he had enjoyed Draco's love and worship for eleven years - what would happen if all those ended, when the former Lord Malfoy became a common prisoner in Nurmengard?

-_Well, Draco's love wouldn't end, but Draco surely wouldn't need me as much as before._

Lucius had been quite worried about his boy since being revived. He knew his boy's Patronus represented him, and that made him worry more. He didn't know how his boy would handle losing his Father again. Such was the reason that Lucius had been so compliant in his dealings with Harry Potter and the Ministry. First agreeing to risk his life as bait for Bellatrix, then swallowing transfigured poison so that he became poisoned bait for the Dark Lord - Lucius wanted to get out of prison sooner; he wanted to be allowed to have home and family visits. He wanted to provide protection and guidance to his boy as much as possible.

Today, Draco's Patronus changed. It no longer represented his Father, but shined the light of life on its own accord. Lucius felt proud and happy. Lucius felt relief. He knew his boy would be alright without him.

-_But what will happen next when Draco no longer needs Father? What will happen … to me?_

Lucius didn't quite know what his next goal in life would be, when he no longer wielded power, wealth, influence, or even much magic, and when his boy no longer needed him.

-_Maybe Narcissa? But -_

The Blue Krait gave a frustrated hiss. Eleven years of separation had virtually made them strangers. Several hours with tears while Draco was near didn't make up for the lost years - they hadn't even had a chance to couple yet.

-_Well, we actually had some chances before I turned myself in, but we both avoided it. Telling myself I don't want my transfigured body fluid to enter Narcissa and cause her harm was a lie. Facing Narcissa after such a long time... And on Narcissa's side, things might be quite similar. _

-_Or, worse. _

As for how worse things might be, the ex-Lord Malfoy didn't want to speculate, just as he didn't want to speculate on the truth behind vicious stories about Narcissa's dissolute lifestyle in the Muggle world. There were numerous vile stories about himself, Lucius knew. Lucius gathered it would be rather difficult for him to convince Narcissa that he only utilized paid-and-obliviated professionals from high-end escort services, that he had had no emotionally intimate relationships with any females, males, or even magical animals - for Merlin's sake!

Even if Narcissa and he could clear everything up, the time they had been and would be separated still posed a great barrier to their relationship.

For eleven years, Narcissa had been in the Muggle world that Lucius despised even more after being forced into it for five days. The "fast food" Severus bought was disgusting, the brownish bubbling sweet drink in red cans contained no subtlety that Lucius enjoyed, and what the Muggle TV said on the Muggle divorce rate was alarming: it said something about twenty percent!

Lucius could only hope that Narcissa had not been contaminated by such scandalous ideas. No Malfoy or Black had ever divorced, and Lucius would never choose the way their ancestors preferred to deal with unbearable marriages - not to Narcissa anyway.

-_On that thought, why would Narcissa allow herself to remain stuck with a husband who can no longer provide for her, had caused pain to her, brings shame to the family, and is also a political burden for her son?_

Lucius forced his thoughts onto some lighter topics, wondering when Severus' Patronus would come to ask him about yet another futile exploration, when he suddenly felt a slight disorientation - the sewer in front of him might have shifted.

Before deciding to mentally call the dementors, he found that nothing actually wrong, except he was slightly hungry. Lucius continued in his previous thoughts while waiting for Severus' Patronus: _what will become of me when Draco no longer needs his Father and Narcissa no longer needs her husband in prison? _

_-Perhaps I could mend powerful magical relics._

The Blue Krait almost amused himself when he thought of such a ridiculous idea, for repairing things was obviously beneath a Malfoy.

-_Or maybe I should craft new spells. After all, I invented the tricks on my hair when I was fifteen, and the spell to keep my robes in shape even on a broomstick when I was sixteen._

That sounded better, but still Gryffindor-ish.

-_Probably only the type that I can save my life with, then. For example, combining the power of the improved Patronus with Protego Maxima… hmm…_

_-Ah, maybe I can use charm research as an excuse to get a wand in prison. That's a promising idea._

Therefore, when Severus' Patronus came, although Lucius knew this would slightly annoy his black-haired friend, he still happily hissed, "_No result. But I know my next target in life: I sshall invent powerful sspellss. For example, I guesss combining the powerss of the new Patronuss and Protego Maxima iss a good idea._"

As Severus' Patronus disappeared to report back to its master, Lucius pondered further on the new combination spell.

-_The better Patronus works by embracing life and rejecting death, and the intent of Protego Maxima is the protection of one's body/life, though it can't block the killing curse, - but why? Why is the killing curse different from all other curses? Perhaps because the intent of Protego Maxima is cracked, since everyone somewhat expects death will happen one way or another. If the intent of the absolute rejection of one's own death is added to the Protego Maxima charm like it is in the Expecto Patronum, it will work!_

Severus' annoyed Patronus came again. "_Luciuss, t-thiss iss not time to think about life g-goalss. Come back._"

Lucius was so excited by his own discovery that he didn't mind his black-haired friend's tone of condescension at all. He hissed all his guesses to the Patronus, then congratulated himself for his exhibition of true friendship: _I have shared such a valuable secret with Severus, because I don't want him to die. Hmm, I need to stop thinking about how this would help consolidate Severus' loyalty to Malfoy family and help Severus protect Draco, so that I can act more genuine when I face him later. Maybe I should ponder on the gesture and incantation of the new spell on my way back._


	27. Chapter 27 The Search, Sacrifices

All my thanks to Jared, Joe, and Kuilin, who beta-ed this chapter.

* * *

Chapter 27.

The Search, Part IV, Sacrifices

10:44 am, June 28th, 1993

In a small circle of privacy in the headquarter office, Harry, Hermione, Draco and Madam Bones were all focusing their attention at a newly installed large two-way screen.

The screen showed the hastily-emptied transfiguration research room, where only the stone platform to perform experiments on was left. Lucius stood on the platform, pondering something with a temporary wand in his hands. Mad-Eye Moody stood on the side of the platform, quite ready to throw a number of interesting hexes on the ex-Lord Malfoy if the blond man dared to do anything extra. In the meantime, Severus was looking back and forth between the rat in the cage besides Lucius and the blond man with unreadable eyes.

Harry also took a great interest in Lucius' demonstration on two different levels: Can Lucius' great invention actually work? If so, what does this mean for the current war?

Lucius took the Patronus stance, and twisted his temporary wand in two circles and one slash in the middle. As if putting his life and magic into the wand, Lucius shouted, "Protego Vitamaxima!"

A bright white-blue shield sprang out from Lucius' wand's tip. The shield was brighter and more solid than any shield that Harry had ever seen, which should be impossible considering Lucius' impaired magical level.

Then Severus pointed his wand at Lucius' shield, but away from Lucius' person. "Reducto!"

The blasting hex rebounded off the powerful shield as expected.

Severus went one step up with the curses. "Sectumsempra!"

The powerful cutting hex invented by Severus himself was blocked by the shield as well.

"Crucio!" Severus shouted.

This time Lucius' shield cracked a little, and the blond man became a little whiter, but the curse was still blocked.

"I think it would be best if we put it to the ultimate test soon, for my magic may not last long." Sweat began to show on Lucius' forehead.

Mad-Eye sneered, stunned the rat, transfigured its face into something resembling Voldemort's snake-like face, and put it on top of the cage.

Lucius then tilted his shield to be more on the rat than himself, and nodded to Severus nervously.

The dark-haired man slightly closed his eyes, then focused on the face of the rat.

Harry knew that it was difficult for anyone with level-one knowledge of the killing curse to hate a rat enough to cast it, which was why Mad-Eye had transfigured the rat's face, helping Severus trick his mind.

The ex-spy cast. "Avada Kedavra!"

A bolt of green light exited Severus' black wand, hitting the bright-blue shield. Some green light was shattered while the shield cracked, dimmed, and winked out. At the same time, both Lucius and Severus began to scream upon the contact of their magic, both instinctively dodging to avoid the scattering green light. Then, both ex-Death Eaters threw away their wands as previously instructed by Harry.

The scream and twitching of the two ex-Death Eaters became subdued after their wands were out of their hands, while the high-pitched desperate shriek of another animal became quite obvious.

The rat on top of the cage was clearly tortured, but it was still alive.

Everyone looked at the tortured rat with amazed eyes. Severus groaned, "The pain I endured was just a bit worse than Crucio, but the residual magic that passed through the shield was not even enough to kill a rat."

At any other time, Harry would be absolutely delighted by Lucius' great insight that could block the killing curse, which was a great step in the mission of conquering death. Harry might want the Wizengamot to give Lucius an Order of Merlin for it, and might even argue for a one-hundred-year reduction in prison time for Lucius. However, at this moment, Harry could only ask one question: is Lucius really the inventor of this spell? If not, in the name of Merlin, what happened?

About twenty minutes ago, when Severus heard Lucius talking about the stance, gesture, and incantation of the proposed spell, he sneered: "Lucius, you do not become a charms master on par with Albus Dumbledore or the Dark Lord the moment you feel the need for a new orientation in life, even if your life depends on it. Guessing the secret behind a powerful spell or ritual, maybe. However, working out the stance, gesture, and incantation within the time interval of searching one pipeline? It is simply impossible, even for the likes of Dumbledore! Or are you claiming yourself to be -"

Severus stopped in mid-sentence, and instead asked Lucius to perform the spell. The moment the dark-haired man saw a seemingly solid white-blue shield, he called for help from Alastor Moody. When Mad-Eye answered that he couldn't turn back in time, Severus apologized, threw all the binding spells he could on Lucius, before dragging the white-haired man to the transfiguration research room.

After Mad-Eye rushed to the room, he frisked Lucius with all the diagnostic spells and trinkets he could think of, finding nothing abnormal. Then he proposed a final test result that could only show up once during Lucius' current life span, anytime between 12:45 am and 6:45 am this June 30th.

"If there is no Time-Turner involved, the ex-Lord Malfoy would be completely fine until about 6 am, June 30th. If any symptoms show up before that, well, I guess we know the result. So, Lucius, you'd better tell us all the truth," Mad-Eye snarled viciously.

Lucius was properly panicked by the test that Mad-Eye proposed, and protested loudly, "You have promised to use the Stone on me after twenty-four hours, not forty-eight! Am I supposed to believe that this is not a scheme of yours to simply kill me? I know you want to. How am I to know if your transfiguration is timed well enough?"

Harry knew the test Mad-Eye proposed was a good one to know whether a Time-Turner was involved in Lucius' case. However, there were multiple questions involved: first, Mad-Eye is a perfect occlumens who can't speak Parseltongue, so there is no convenient way to know whether Mad-Eye is telling what is perceived by himself to be the truth, such as how many hours the transfiguration was supposed to last; second, even if Mad-Eye is telling the truth, the Confundus Charm and memory charms, along with a number of other things, are still a danger; third, nobody has tested Mad-Eye's transfiguration precision besides himself, and it is known that people tend to exaggerate their own abilities in their own minds; fourth and most importantly, the test subject, one Lucius Malfoy, is in lethal danger, and he objects the test with good grounds.

Therefore, Harry proposed another test: just let Lucius cast the spell he thought might block the killing curse along with other hexes. If the shield failed, it could be a highly-unwise whim of Lucius, but if it was successful like now…

Harry had no choice but to consider some sinister explanations.

Lucius had claimed in Parseltongue that he didn't know that anything abnormal had happened - there just might have been a slight disorientation, but that could have been caused by the fact that he hadn't had any breakfast that morning, and then he had crawled in pipelines for three hours with an empty stomach.

To Harry, the slight disorientation strongly suggested a Time-Turner and memory charms, though Lucius himself might prefer the other explanation. The blond man argued that since the remembrall handed to him hadn't glowed, and he had invented a hair-smoothing spell when he was fifteen, and a robe-shaping charm when he was sixteen, therefore this new spell must be his own invention.

-Because everyone would like to believe themselves to be a genius. Acquiring the ability to figure out details of a powerful spell takes years of hard learning. Even after that, it would take much longer than a few hours for most wizards who are as brilliant as Dumbledore to do it.

Harry didn't need to say this part, because Mad-Eye said it for him. "A remembrall is such a weak magical item. I have a dozen ways to fool it, I'm sure Voldie has at least that. I wouldn't be surprised if you formulated a conspiracy to overthrow the Wizengamot in half an hour, but crafting a spell? Pfft. Are you suggesting that you are as smart as your previous master? If so, why don't you go and hunt down the bastard, and give us his head in exchange for the use of the Stone?"

"How could the Dark Lord possibly conjure up some spell involving the Patronus charm?" Lucius argued reasonably. "Moreover, why am I alive? Why are you alive? Why is Draco unscathed?"

Mad-Eye snarled, "Perhaps you defected back to the Dark Lord, and told him everything about the Patronus charm."

"And you think that he would let me go just because I told him the secret behind a spell that he couldn't cast?" Lucius rebutted sarcastically. "Not even Dumbledore would let me go unscathed. I wonder how you became delusional enough to believe the Dark Lord suddenly became a saint."

"Maybe he plotted to get to Harry through you, and this great spell was only imprinted to your memory because he wanted Harry Potter to observe the effect himself. Probably there is some trigger that would only be activated by the presence of Harry, or Hermione, or something on their body, etc. Good thing that Severus directly dragged you here. You can claim your innocence all you want in Parseltongue now, but when the time comes, you will bring disaster the moment something is triggered, you vile snake!" Mad-Eye stopped, and his lips twitched. "Maybe he would want you not only to bring him Harry Potter, but also the new Lord Malfoy. Then, he will let you torture your own precious son to death yourself, or let you torture each other to death."

Lucius' face turned a shade whiter when he heard Mad-Eye's proposed scenarios.

Harry knew what Mad-Eye proposed was entirely possible for the Voldemort the old Auror knew, but now Harry had another explanation: Voldemort is practicing being nice.

-A Version 1.0 Patronus is impossible for Voldemort, because that psychopath probably can never be happy enough to cast the Patronus charm; the true Patronus is impossible for him as well, for he doesn't value the lives of others. However, a Version 1.5 Patronus may actually work for him, because Voldemort may be able to think how great it is for himself to live while rejecting his own death.

Harry cursed himself again for being too slow for the uptake, being too loose on important secrets, and -

-Hermione didn't stop me, because she wanted everyone to have the maximum probability of survival as I do; Draco might have seen the danger, but he didn't stop me, because he wanted to increase his father's chances to live.

Oh, are you trying to blame your friends for your mistakes? What kind of hero are you? Hufflepuff chided Harry. I thought we had all agreed on the heroic responsibility thing. And it is neither Hermione nor Draco's responsibility to prevent world destruction, but we dragged them into it.

-I am just stating the facts, not blaming them.

That rebuttal won Harry a sour face from Hufflepuff and a sneer from his internal-consistency checker.

Somewhere in the back of Harry's mind, he could imagine Professor Quirrell's cold sardonic laughs: when the Dark Lord does something nice, the "good" people just quarrel amongst themselves more!

"I can see why." Madam Bones spoke gravely. "The Dark Lord is using a good person or multiple good persons as pawns. In the Azkaban breakout, I thought he had told some extensive lies to a good, clever, and powerful person to deceive him or her into rescuing Bellatrix Black, because that person subdued Bahry without killing him, and that person used transfigured water as rocker fuel so that the Aurors wouldn't be badly hurt when the transfiguration wore out."

-Although we know what really happened in Azkaban, Madam Bones' idea is another possibility. Voldemort might have used some good and powerful wizards as pawns. For example, Voldemort took on the identity of Alexander Chernyshov. It is reasonable to believe that some of his followers back then were genuinely good people, and they were absolutely loyal to him. He might even have taught some supporters some powerful magic to keep up appearances. Voldemort could have easily gone to supporters like that. He could tell them the sole reason he had disappeared for so long, was that he was killed and remained as only an incorporeal ghost, sustained by a horcrux he made when he slayed an evil enemy. He might have told his supporters that Lucius was his enemy for some made-up reason - Lucius wasn't a good person anyway - and told his supporters to get Lucius' blood. Or, he might have told his supporters that he needed Lucius' blood for some good reason, so his supporters would do it more willingly.

-And one of Voldemort's powerful supporters might have felt sorry for taking Lucius' blood and mind-charming him, so he or she left a cue of a recently invented powerful protection spell to Lucius. And he or she might think letting giant spiders kill each other was a good thing to do as well. Or the last part was Professor Quirrell's act.

-As for flesh from a servant, that's no problem for Voldemort at all.

-Father's bone, hmm, maybe Voldemort had cut his father's body into pieces, and buried the pieces over a wide region near Earth's surface.

-At any rate, dementors are probably no longer a powerful weapon against Voldemort. Or, is that another bluff on Voldemort's part, like the time that he tricked us to doubt the Hogwarts wards?

As Harry began to think about the Hogwarts wards, he started to miss the Map that could show everyone's name within Hogwarts. When the Aurors burned everything besides Professor Quirrell's body, the Map was burned as well. At the time, Harry had considered it rather convenient, fearing someone else might find out that the Hogwarts wards considered him to be Tom Riddle.

Therefore, when Mad-Eye included the true-name system of the Hogwarts wards into the protection on the Room of Requirement, Harry made no suggestion as to try to make another Map to cover the entire range of Hogwarts, but rather he made a mental note to himself not to go anywhere near the Room of Requirement.

-Now, if we had the Map…

No, Harry needed to stop blaming himself, because that could wait. He needed to think of something useful.

-If I were Voldemort, what would I do?

Harry started to model Voldemort in his mind.

-Blood purity is nonsense, since I, a half-blood, am the most powerful wizard in the world, so I wouldn't need Lucius' blood for its purity. Lucius is not a powerful wizard, therefore his blood is inferior. I would definitely need something better.

-For example, I would need Hermione Granger's blood, since she is quite powerful on her own accord, and her blood contains the power of a unicorn and a troll.

-On the other hand, I may also have some powerful enemies in some other parts of the world. Their blood may also suffice.

-I would still want the Stone. Hmm, the nice version of wanting the Stone would be to use a false identity, fake some dangerous condition, and let the healers send me to the Hospital. I have ample time to do that before Bellatrix's body decays, or even after her body decays, because I have other loyal servants who would die for me without any questions being asked.

-Plus, confusing my enemies, showing my omnipotence, and being nice in the meantime are rather fun.

"I think this is a backup plan for the Dark Lord," Harry said grimly. "He wouldn't be satisfied by anything less than Hermione's blood."

Harry could see that Lucius wanted to sneer but quickly caught himself, and Hermione gasped slightly before her hand covered her mouth.

"I think Voldie would prefer yours, but the Girl-Who-Revived's might barely do," Mad-Eye pondered.

-No, there is the magical resonance thing, so he wouldn't use my blood for his revival. Plus, he wouldn't risk himself with me again, not until he got all his power back.

Harry didn't say it, because other dark wizards might have wanted his blood for some unrelated evil ritual, and continued to model Voldemort.

-What would I do after I obtained a lesser enemy's blood, and had everything I need for a lesser revival ritual?

-I might obtain more blood from lesser enemies. I have quite a bunch of them all over the world. And I would need a plot to get the best blood I can, of course.

-Moreover, the Stone. I would need to obtain the Stone. And I would need to kill the younger Tom Riddle.

-Or better. If I threatened the younger Tom Riddle with world destruction and promised not to destroy the world myself, my younger self might steal the Stone for me and kill himself. Yeah, the world would be safer with the younger Tom Riddle dead, and I would be doing a nice thing. However, the boy might pull a trick on me again, so this would be just another backup plan.

-The world might be boring without my younger self, so I may throw him into the Mirror and save him for my later entertainment.

-Oh, the Mirror!

Harry had a grim smile on his young face. He now knew what he should do. All the time, he always knew what he should do, he just avoided thinking of it because it was just too painful.

-I can invoke the ritual that Dumbledore used, which he left some instructions for in the secret room in the Headmaster's office. I can lock myself and all other Tom Riddles in Time. With some maneuver, I may even be able to get Dumbledore out in the process.

-I should give this thing a countdown clock as a dead-man's switch, where I need to periodically send a signal to reset the countdown within a certain period of time, or otherwise the Mirror will lock all Tom Riddles in Time. No, it should be a combination of positive triggers and negative triggers.

-Since dementors work on expectations, incorporating them in the ritual as remote controls would be a good idea. And since Voldemort only guessed how dementors worked after he killed MacNair, the current Horcrux Voldemort probably doesn't know.

-To be safe, I need to figure out multiple ways to trigger this ritual. A brainstorm with Mad-Eye, Severus, Hermione, and Draco may produce some.

-The disappearance of one good person together with potentially many other evil ones, and a much safer world. Just what a hero in a story should do.

-As for my other projects such as conquering death, Hermione and Draco might be able to do that. And after Hermione has lead sapient beings to conquer far-away galaxies or other universes, she might release all Tom Riddles from the Mirror, save me, and blast the ancient Earth plus the Pioneer plaques - no, the Milky Way Galaxy for safety precautions.

-That's definitely a working plan, which actually fits the Prophecies indicated by Dumbledore and Voldemort.

With a scarily bright smile on his face, the Boy-Who-Lived happily said, "Madam Bones, Mr. Moody, Professor Snape, Draco, and Hermione, I have something to talk about with each of you in private, and maybe some of you in groups."

8:14 pm, July 2nd, 1993 (local time)

A balding brown-haired white man in wizarding robes floated invisibly in the middle of the air, looking downward with cold and calculating eyes.

Beneath him, hundreds of Muggles in festive clothes were densely packed on a river boat decorated with a 20-foot tall pagoda, cheering happily, and thousands more were cheering for them on the river banks, for this was a well-attended local holiday on this heavily populated island.

The man drew out a brand-new black wand, and made a slight gesture.

A holiday firework shooting out from the river bank made a small departure from its original path, and took its aim at the holiday boat. Some people on the boat saw the stray firework that was shooting toward them, and tried to move away, while other people who couldn't see the rocket were pushed to the other side of the boat. The shift of the center of weight of the boat, with the help of some timely wind on the top of the pagoda, tilted the barge. As some cracking noises from the boat were heard, the mass on the boat became panicked.

With a wave of his hand, a large piece of parchment and a quill invisible to the crowd below appeared in front of the man in the middle of the air. As Muggles fell into the river like cherries falling into a washing pan, the calls from Muggles took a sudden turn from happiness to panic, the man occasionally twitched his wand and murmured something low in an ancient language.

As men, women, and children who were good swimmers their whole lives found themselves unable to keep themselves afloat in the warm July water, the quill in the middle of the air would note down something on the parchment.

The balding man frowned: hmm, drowning doesn't work so well. Do I have to build a gas chamber myself?

When a hint of blackness began to form over the river where hundreds of people were drowning, the brown-haired wizard instantly gathered his quill and parchment, and apparated away.

-It seems that the formation of dementors are another concern of this method, but this surely proves that massive deaths of Muggles do have some magical effect. Did Grindelwald use some method to prevent dementors from forming, or did he use some method to channel the magic elsewhere, or did he use someone with a Patronus to help him? Hmm.


	28. Chapter 28 Memory Charms

All my thanks to Jared, Joe, and Kuilin, who beta-ed this chapter.

* * *

Chapter 28.

Memory Charms

11:57 pm, July 2nd, 1993

Accompanied by an Auror trio, Severus walked slowly through the stone hallways of Hogwarts, slightly dazed. He and Mad-Eye had escorted Harry back to his bed chamber in Ravenclaw, where an Auror trio would guard the Boy-Who-Lived for the night, and Mad-Eye had just departed through the Floo in Minerva's office.

Usually, Severus would prefer a solitary walk in an almost-empty Hogwarts at night. However, the current security protocol required that nobody should ever pass through the corridors alone. What was worse, to the dismay of both Severus and the current Auror trio, Severus and Auror Bahry had to share what used to be Severus' temporary living room, while the place Severus had called his bedroom for a few days was shared by Auror McJorgenson and Trainee Auror Tonks.

Any other time, Severus would hate this rather inconsiderate arrangement; but he knew his current daze, caused by multiple advanced memory charms, might impair his ability to defend himself for a short while - so he tolerated the presence of the Auror trio for now.

-_Well, my patience will run out when the women begin their long showers, while Bahry and I have to wait for our turns. Merlin knows why women can take showers together, while Bahry and I would rather hex each other than do the same. Perhaps that's because Tonks and McJorgenson like each other, while Bahry and I despise each other. _

Severus gave an inward sigh and dearly hoped this safety protocol would end soon.

-_To be honest, who are we kidding? The glasses we are wearing at all times may prevent immediate death by basilisk attacks, but the Dark Lord can probably kill all of us without any magic. Even I can think of Muggle explosives. The Dark Lord can surely think of something better._

-_And the Boy-Who-Lived's plot, whatever it is, will it work?_

Severus frowned slightly, wondering what the things that he didn't remember now were. He remembered that Harry Potter had called him into the Headmistress' Office four days ago after Hermione, Draco, and Mad-Eye each had their own talks with the Boy-Who-Lived. Potter had asked Severus whether he would participate in something and then be memory-charmed about it,only recalling part of it after certain events occurred. Severus had surely agreed.

-_The Girl-Who-Revived seemed a bit sad after her talk with Potter, so whatever the plot is, it must require some sacrifices on our side. Would that boy be stupid enough to really act Dumbledore-ish, and sacrifice himself? That's surely a possibility. _

Severus felt a familiar wave of sadness and nausea.

_-If only we can somehow preserve the boy's head when he sacrifices himself, maybe I can revive him._

-_Otherwise, I can only hope one of three things turn out our way. First, Potter is creative enough that he will think of something powerful enough to defeat the Dark Lord again using the lessons that Mad-Eye and I are about to teach him. Second, my future attempt to corrupt magical officials of the former Soviet states may result in some interesting discoveries, and the boy may get something more from those. Third, as Lucius has offered, he may be able to weasel out some secrets from Grindelwald after he is sentenced._

_-Grindelwald had been literally invincible before his Muggle allies failed - or at least that was what Albus claimed, though I never asked Albus the question in Parseltongue - so there must be something there. Nazis had notorious concentration camps that killed Muggles in very meticulous manners: could that be the secret? If so, can we use the natural deaths of Muggles to boost Potter's magic for a while? Tens of thousands Muggles die from natural causes every day anyway. _

The ex-Death Eater continued his thought that would definitely be condemned by the "good" people of magical Britain as he entered his temporary residence. When the women went to the bathroom, Bahry and Severus stared at each other, before they each went into their own beds with curtains drawn.

Severus reached into his pouch, drawing out his dark-blue suitcase containing most of his books, and descended into his suitcase-study.

Severus' plan for tonight had been learning Russian in preparation for his future trip to whichever former Soviet states had enough secrets and plenty of corruptible magical officials, but his heart wasn't exactly in Russian now. For some reason Severus had a feeling that if he were to learn ancient runes or Egyptian hieroglyphs tonight, he might gain more.

-_Is this related to what I did for the past three days? Is it possible that the Boy-Who-Lived knew something from his Line of Merlin Unbroken heritage, and asked Mad-Eye and me to perform the magic for him? The knowledge might not be Interdicted, but ancient and powerful for sure. Or, the boy had guessed the secret of some Interdicted magic, and just needed us to fill in the details._

Severus sat down by his solid wooden desk, adjusted the light in the study, and summoned the _Advanced Magical Hieroglyphs_ that he had duplicated from Hogwarts library, and the _Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs_ that he had duplicated from the British library.

Severus sighed inwardly for the wizarding kind: _even in the language that is considered magical, the Muggles know more these days. Should I feel lucky the wizards hired by the goblins to work in the pyramids don't study Muggle Egyptology? There might still be something left for me to discover there._

-_Maybe after we get rid of the Dark Lord once and for all, I can explore Latin America, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, India, China, and Japan as I originally planned. Actually, I should travel to Iraq and Iran first, before the Muggles start another war in the region and destroy everything._

Severus looked longingly at his large collection of mostly-untouched language and history books that he duplicated with the help of several memory charmed and bribed Muggle librarians in the British Library. He knew all his planning would only be dreaming if the Boy-Who-Lived's plan didn't work out.

After Severus had flipped through quite some pages in his third read-through of _Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs_, Auror Bahry yelled something outside the suitcase, and Severus ignored him.

-_Let him take the bath first. The hieroglyphs are really beginning to make sense to me now. _

However, by this time, Severus started to feel some emptiness in his stomach. Severus murmured, "Tempus."

"12:42 am, July 3rd, 1993" showed up in the air.

Severus then drew out his mechanical pocket watch from his pouch, and it showed 6:42 am.

-_I must have somehow turned my Time-Turner six times in the past twenty-four hours, for some purpose that I don't remember. And as a matter of fact, when did I have my last meal?_

Severus shook his head, trying to get the light fog of tiredness and the after-effect of memory charms away, and summoned a frozen burger from his pouch. While heating the burger, Severus absent-mindedly noted that the memory charms he or someone else had used on him must be quite strong, since he was still feeling the after-effect.

_-However, there is something not quite right. What is it?_

Severus opened his pouch and dug into it, hoping he had left himself a note or some other form of communication.


	29. Chapter 29 Descendants I, Tom Riddles

All my thanks to Jared, Joe, and Kuilin, who beta-ed this chapter.

* * *

Chapter 29.

Descendants, Part I, Tom Riddles

12:54 am, July 3rd, 1993

Salazar Slytherin silently exited the temporary residence of his black-haired descendant, completely fascinated by the small duplicated gadget in his hand.

The small golden clicking gadget was only the size of a locket. On its surface, it had three delicate metal pointers turning at different speeds. Roman numbers three, six, nine and twelve were embossed on the background, with smaller divisions in between the numbers. Some simple charms revealed that there were quite a number of turning parts inside its small cavity.

-_From the sound of the "Tempus" charm Severus used before he drew out this gadget, that charm might have something to do with time. It must be a new charm invented after I locked myself in Time. The numbers shown in the air may reflect the current time, then. I need to learn the current spellings of numbers to fully understand what those mean. _

_-Perhaps this gadget has something to do with time as well? Maybe Severus got suspicious of his fogging memory, and checked if a Time-Turner was somehow involved? Hmm... so possibly this gadget can track time without being influenced by the use of a Time-Turner._

_-What an exquisite invention! Do the larger intervals represent hours? As for the further divisions, hmm, I have heard that some Persian scholar had divided an hour into sixty parts, and each part into sixty second-part, and each second-part into sixty third-part, is that it?_

Salazar counted as the thinnest and longest pointer turned a full sixty stops, saw the medium-sized pointer moved one small interval, and confirmed one of his guesses.

_-Wizards are surely getting weaker and weaker as time passes by, but I have to admit they have made neat progresses elsewhere, such as this magical gadget, or the improvements with the luck potion. In my time, drinking a luck potion was as lethal as drinking unicorn blood, but later potioneers - including my interesting descendant Severus - have reduced a lot of the side-effects._

_-As matter of fact, my crazy descendant Tom Riddle has made some important and powerful magical inventions as well._

Salazar felt quite a headache as he thought of his descendant in the Gaunt line, one Tom Morfin Riddle, who was referred to as "You-Know-Who", "the Dark Lord", "Harry Potter", and "the Boy-Who-Lived".

Salazar wasn't surprised that some of his descendants might become dark lords, for he himself was considered a dark lord by many idiots; but he was, for a while, confused by the complicated game played by this Tom Riddle. He thought back to his escape.

* * *

A few months ago in the eyes of the world outside the Mirror, while Salazar was busy deciphering Rowena's ward, he also took a quick scan of the garbage in the room to see if there was anything that he could use. To his surprise, he found Rowena's Diadem, tainted by some foolish wizard's horcrux spell many years ago, sitting on an ugly statue.

-_What an idiot! And what a waste of a valuable magical artefact! The rumor that making horcruxes would hurt one's children didn't stop idiots from committing such follies, then. _

Salazar sighed inwardly, allowing himself a moment to miss the good drinks he'd had with Godric, and the hilarious things that happened afterwards: _who would believe the good and righteous Lord Godric Gryffindor would knowingly spread a rumor concocted by none other than the evil and dark Lord Salazar Slytherin? _

_-It didn't fully serve its purpose, though. _

Salazar stopped his sentimental thoughts to focus on the current problems.

-_What is worse, the Diadem has a "mind" now that it is a horcrux, __so I can't use it to replace myself in the Mirror and escape, unless I can cleanse it of this nasty horcrux, because whatever has a mind has to come into the Mirror willingly__._

Salazar briefly connected his magic to Hogwarts wards, discovering that the idiot who made the useless horcrux had a name of "Tom Morfin Riddle". Interestingly, there were also two overlapping "Tom Morfin Riddles" moving outside, and one of them was none other than the acclaimed hero for the "defeat" of his adult descendant, one "Harry Potter".

It took Salazar quite some extra energy, beyond what he was using to crack Rowena's interposed space, to determine the age of "Harry Potter", which turned out to be both twelve and sixty-six; as for the half-dead transfigured one overlapping with "Tom Morfin Riddle", he was sixty-six. Then Salazar finally understood what had happened: _after this Tom Riddle had made Rowena's Diadem into his horcrux, for whatever stupid reasons, he also made a child named "Harry Potter" into his living horcrux. And this living horcrux is carrying a true body of "Tom Riddle" wherever he goes, so that he can use his true body for powerful magic as needed. _

-_This Tom Riddle, he couldn't… he couldn't also be the adult descendant who was "defeated" by "Harry Potter", could he?_

Salazar briefly imagined the scene of several Tom Riddles fighting - or pretending to fight - each other, then sighed in complete frustration. Somehow, that was exactly the level of craziness that he himself might reach if he really had infinite life and no Godric to duel.

-_Although a horcrux doesn't really give you infinite life, this crazy descendant, or descendants, might have gained virtual infinite life by the Stone._

_-Does this have something to do with the fact that the Stone is available to a lot of wizards now? One of the Tom Riddles is pretending to be an idealistic hero, and another is dressing up as a smart evil lord? How many other identities does he have? _

Even Lord Slytherin had a limit for insanity. He decided that after he extracted himself from the Mirror, he needed to hunt down all the Tom Riddles. He would teach them a good lesson.

After Salazar finally dug a hole into Rowena's chamber, he called for the snakes to come into the chamber and enter the Mirror. Most of the snakes did, except one basilisk named Nagini, who had unfortunately eaten too many acromantulas in the Forbidden Forest, gaining so much fat it couldn't crawl in through the narrow tunnel even after vomiting all the contents of its stomach.

Still trapped in the Mirror because of the gluttony of Nagini, the more mobile Lord Slytherin worked further on the tunnels to allow Nagini in, and started to ask the basilisk a few questions about the outside world.

And Salazar felt quite lucky that he had asked, for Nagini revealed that its previous master, one named "Tom Riddle", had transferred all the knowledge Salazar left to Herpo and quite a few other secrets of powerful magic to Nagini.

-_So this crazy descendant of mine must have met Herpo before it died, and got the idea of using a basilisk from there._

Then it hit Salazar: _this crazy descendant of mine met Herpo before it died! _

Now Salazar began to speculate how Herpo had died.

-_I made sure that my descendants could only meet Herpo each time after they had promised that they had not and would not to hurt Herpo the Basilisk by any means in Parseltongue. If Tom Riddle did kill Herpo, how did he do it?_

Salazar pondered this question, then it became apparent: _Tom Riddle could have made Herpo "not Herpo", and then killed it. For example, some time after Tom Riddle had learnt all the secrets, he could have killed someone in front of Herpo, and made himself a horcrux. Obviously, Herpo would have given him a stern lecture on how useless horcruxes were, then tried to destroy the horcrux with its fangs. Maybe Tom Riddle had made some improvements on his horcrux spell, so that the horcrux could have occupied Herpo, and make it "Tom Riddle". Then, one Tom Riddle could have killed another Tom Riddle._

Then Salazar remembered something much simpler - the Hogwarts wards allowed one to willingly change one's own name upon marriage.

When the first wizarding school had just been built, witches and wizards from all walks of life came and studied magic under the powerful Hogwarts Four. As the students aged from eleven all the way up to one hundred and six, it was inevitable that a lot of them got married during their Hogwarts years. Salazar had encouraged such unions, for these marriages would ensure the purity of wizarding blood.

-_Tom Riddle could have found another powerful snake and introduced them. He might tell Herpo that it was customary for the wizarding kind to change their names upon marriage. Oh, stupid snakes!_

_-Or if Herpo didn't change its name upon marriage, Riddle could aim his curses at Herpo's bride or babies, and …_

The image of the loyal basilisk inserting itself between the green light and its bride, and the scene of Herpo rushing desperately into Fiendfyre to save its babies, flashed alternatively inside Salazar's mind, and irked the old wizard greatly.

Salazar didn't want to kill his descendants, but he would surely make the "lessons" much harsher for this Tom Riddle, and Salazar even began to wonder if killing all the Tom Riddles would be a good idea for the safety of Hogwarts.

Then, Nagini told Salazar the details of the powerful wizardry in Tom Riddle's knowledge that Salazar didn't know.

Salazar had to admit to himself, that he was shocked to learn how much powerful magic his descendant had learnt from parts of the world that Salazar himself had never explored, and how much Tom Riddle had invented: _with the improvements on the horcrux spell and the ritual to create a semi-true body with bone of father, blood of enemy, and flesh of servant, a wizard has virtually infinite life even without the Stone of Permanency!_

_-And his use of the Resurrection Stone to connect his improved horcrux system - it is so incredibly clever and selfish. I had never thought it could be used for oneself like that._

Then, Salazar had a wonderful realization: _Actually, that is the missing part in all my designs of resurrection rituals without the preserved heart! That is how the Resurrection Stone is supposed to be used, for oneself, not for summoning the loved ones from afterlife. Everyone says the Resurrection Stone can only summon the ghost of your own memory, for it is your own memory. And that's exactly what it is: the summoning of one's own memory upon the touch of one's body. If I can conjure Godric's body from his hair in my pouch, and use the Stone of Permanency to make it true, then I can use the Resurrection Stone on the true body to summon Godric's memories and thoughts! _

_-Oh, I have such a wonderful collection of hair from my one hundred and fifty years of life. _

Salazar felt great glee, no longer worried about going insane like Tom Riddle after he gained infinite life: _because I can bring my wife and my son back - they died so young, before they even turned one hundred. And, of course, Godric, Rowena, and Helga. I guess they won't mind too much that I broke into their tombs after I heard about their deaths. What a shame that even Helga, the youngest of Hogwarts Four, died before I figured out how to preserve one's heart over a long period of time. _

Salazar happily dug out a wider passage for Nagini, and kept the basilisk outside the Mirror, because it had too much useful information to be temporarily locked in Time.

Naturally, Salazar now also extended his senses to a wider range of Hogwarts, especially towards the few interesting persons he now knew.

Breaking the series of charms usually used by current wizards took Salazar some time, but he himself was the ultimate Hogwarts defense expert, and Nagini was the best guide to contemporary magical developments. Salazar obtained full auditory access to all parts of Hogwarts, especially "Harry Potter's" headquarters and the Headmistress' Office, just in time for him to catch some interesting conversations between several of his descendants.

As it turned out, the interesting mediocre wizard, the former Head of Slytherin, was also Salazar's descendant. Unfortunately, this "Severus Snape" might be a stutterer, which was a detrimental disability for any serious wizard.

Disabled and mediocre a wizard as Severus was, he apparently had done something that Salazar had never accomplished in one hundred and fifty years - Severus had revived someone.

-_And much better than reviving someone random, that person is also my descendant, one Lucius Malfoy. Judging by how happy little Draco is, Lucius might be little Draco's father. _

_-Hmm, maybe I should try to figure out a way to cure stammer. Severus' cunning is quite to my taste._

The eavesdropping on the Parseltongue conversation between the Tom Riddle in the form of a child and Lucius Malfoy revealed something much more important than the contemporary political struggles among his descendants: it seemed that both of the Parselmouths honestly believed that something could lead to world destruction, and there was a "_Vow_" - possibly an Unbreakable Vow - involved.

Unfortunately, most other conversations were carried out in the current vernacular that Salazar didn't understand, yet some words that Salazar did understand made him worry: some words sounding like "prophecy", "destroy", "world", and "Unbreakable Vow" were mentioned quite several times.

These words stopped Salazar from carrying out his original plans of luring the two squib servants. Salazar decided that he need to be more careful, and not attract any possible attention before he figured out everything.

Luckily, one of the Tom Riddles - maybe the adult one called "_the Dark Lord"_, soon made another scene that scared Severus, little Draco, and the girl full of smells of unicorn and troll. This somehow lead to a lot of outside wizards coming into Hogwarts, also bringing many magical snakes in, which was just to Salazar's taste.

Yet to Salazar's disgust, the Tom Riddle in the form of a child not only completely fooled Severus into thinking of him as a leader for the "Light", but he also misled Severus into believing killing Herpo or other basilisks would grant great power. Salazar instantaneously saw the scheme: _this Tom Riddle is afraid that Severus might meet Nagini unexpectedly, and Severus might learn the secrets of powerful magic from Nagini and therefore no longer be under his control. So, Tom indicated that Severus should kill Nagini, instead of talking with it._

Salazar's hand trembled slightly. In an instant, he wanted to tear all the Tom Riddles into pieces. But he had waited for so long, he could wait a little longer.

Whatever weird plots the Tom Riddles were playing at, the many magical snakes brought into the tunnels and sewers were definitely helpful for the lord trapped in the Mirror.


	30. Chapter 30 Descendants II, Little Draco

All my thanks to Jared, Joe, and Kuilin, who beta-ed this chapter.

* * *

Chapter 30.

Descendants, Part II, Little Draco

6:52 am, June 28th, 1993

Lord Slytherin stretched his limbs outside the Mirror for the first time in several hundred years, and surveyed the room that he was currently in from more perspectives than just the inside of the Mirror. This was a room that was almost the size of the Great Hall, with high windows sending shafts of light down upon what looked like a city with towering walls, built of piles of broken and strange-looking furniture, tens of thousands of shattered bounded parchments, mountains of items with both mischievous and malevolent natures, old and dusty garments suited to strange tastes, remnants of ill-formed magical creatures, and rusty metal weapons with suspicious stains.

Salazar walked down a few aisles and saw a dusty tiara sitting on top of a bust of an ugly wizard. His eyes stayed on the tiara that was decorated with sapphire and amber, knowing it was the Diadem, the magical artefact that could point out the wearer's logical mistakes in his or her thought process. Such a powerful magical item should be able to resist dust by its own power. Unfortunately, the taint of Tom Riddle's imprint had impaired such abilities.

Salazar frowned, then retrieved a precious glass bottle that he bought when he had traveled to Constantinople. He opened the bottle, instructed Nagini to bite on the edge, and let her venom drain into the glass bottle.

After collecting about half a bottle of basilisk venom, Salazar used a hovering charm to direct the bottle to float to the tainted Diadem, and carefully dripped drops of venom on the edge of it. The moment the viscous black liquid made contact with the Diadem, a dark shadow somewhat resembling a human shape emerged from the tiara, shrieked desperately in vernacular and twisted like a wounded wild animal.

Salazar continued dripping without any hesitation. After dealing with dark magic for so many years, Salazar wouldn't have stopped even if the shadow had been speaking Parseltongue and promising world domination.

A few moments later, the dark shadow's voice lowered and became more incoherent, the dark fog distorted, then evaporated.

Salazar continued for a few more moments after the dark shadow had completely disappeared.

Before Salazar could further examine Rowena's Diadem, he heard something more from Tom Riddle's headquarters: Tom Riddle revealed some secrets of the Patronus charm to Lucius, and he said that secret might produce a Patronus powerful enough to block a killing curse.

-_How is that possible? Tom Riddle said in Parseltongue that he had tried it once, but he didn't state the result. Hmm._

_-According to Lucius, the more powerful Patronus that Severus wielded might be an essential part in the resurrection ritual that Severus used to bring Lucius back, and it takes life and magic, and the happy thought of life over death._

Salazar pondered this new riddle and tried, yet without success. His Patronus was still the same huge basilisk, although trying to put life into it could certainly make it brighter.

_-Is Tom Riddle bluffing about the result?_

Then after some conversation in the vernacular that Salazar really needed to learn, it seemed that Lucius, little Draco, and another wizard all learnt how to cast a more powerful Patronus, and therefore there must be something.

_-Life over death, life over death… _

_-The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. _

_-The Patronus drives away dementors, which form naturally when massive unnatural deaths occur. So the Patronus may be indeed the magic of life, not merely happiness. And resurrection is the victory of life over death, yes._

With that in mind, Salazar pushed his magic and a bit of his life into his wand, "Expecto Patronum!"

A large ball of bright light exited the tip of the elm wand that Salazar had used since he was ten years old. Some bright vapor extended from the bright ball, some shape resembling human neck and shoulder struggled to stabilize itself for quite a while, and yet it finally coiled back into the bright ball.

-_Should the Patronus be a human instead of an animal? There is some riddle that I have yet to grasp, but this Patronus is indeed more powerful than any previous Patronus I have seen. _

Salazar pondered the question further: _Tom Riddle seemed to believe on a certain level that this Patronus might block the killing curse. Does this relate to the idea of "the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death"? Possibly so._

One puzzle that had bewildered Salazar for a long time was why the killing curse behaved so differently from all other spells. Powerful protection charms wielded by the Hogwarts Four could block almost every hex thrown by weaker wizards, except the killing curse. It couldn't be any problem with raw power, for the killing curse didn't require any more magic than the level of an average fifteen-year-old wizard, nor did it require any permanent sacrifice. For the sake of whatever gods or goddesses above if they really existed, the killing curse wasn't even an Interdicted spell!

Now, it seemed that one needed to sufficiently believe that death could be destroyed to use the advanced Patronus charm, and maybe this belief could also be used to block the killing curse.

Salazar pondered further on the question, keeping an ear on Tom Riddle, Lucius, and Severus the whole time.

After a while, it seemed that some further commotion came from Tom Riddle's headquarters. The flow of magic told Salazar that little Draco might have been blessed by Lucius, a witch called Narcissa Malfoy - presumably little Draco's mother, and Severus the Stutterer.

-_Is this some important day for little Draco? Hmm, interesting._

Then, little Draco and a number of other wizards were dispatched to the general direction of the Forbidden Forest. A while later, Severus also dispatched quite a few snakes that he was commanding to go to the Forbidden Forest to prevent "_eight-eyed giant sspiderss from l-running away, or con-contacting outsside v-wizarding kind"_.

-_Nagini did mention that there were a lot of delicious giant spiders in the Forbidden Forest. Do the spiders follow instructions from outside wizards? _

_-Could it be some form of test for little Draco? But given the weird plots played by the Tom Riddles, this task might have been twisted into a murder plot, at the expense of the safety of Hogwarts!_

Salazar controlled his anger toward Tom Riddle, and pondered the question. During the early years, the Hogwarts Four had to defend the school from magical and Muggle invaders many times, and Salazar clearly remembered that Lord Foul had used dementors. It was entirely possible that some magical giant spiders could be used for similar purposes.

Salazar extended his connection with the school wards to the fullest, soon finding one unauthorized mediocre wizard named Giuliani lurking on the edge of the Hogwarts wards. Salazar wrapped the Diadem with dragonhide and put it into a spare pouch, then put Nagini into his pouch for pets, disillusioned himself, and used his privilege as one of the Hogwarts Four to Apparate to that location.

In the familiar dense woods that looked quite similar to how it was before Salazar locked himself in Time stood the black-haired middle-aged wizard. That man was quite careful, because he kept his protection on all the time, and there were a number of interesting magical artefacts on him.

However, none of them was of any use in front of Lord Salazar Slytherin. Salazar's bright red stunning hex smashed the blue Protego Maxima into pieces and hit Giuliani's chest before any of the gadgets had any chance to activate.

Salazar sized up the wizard on the ground, determined that he was a complete ponce, for his skin was better than most five-year-olds, his teeth and nails were better kept than most witches Salazar had met, and the cloth of his garments was better than anything that Salazar had ever seen.

-_Maybe I should torture information out of him, then ask his family for ransom, for this guy is surely quite rich._

"Legilimens."

The wizard tried to put up some mental defense against Salazar, yet his weak barrier was torn into pieces as easily as his poor excuse of a Protego Maxima. Then Salazar saw this ponce using charms on another wizard in red robes, and watched invisibly as the wizard in red robes talked with several eight-eyed spiders larger than bulls, again in the vernacular that Salazar couldn't understand.

-_Hopefully, this ponce can understand Latin, Greek, or French._

"Quid hic agis?" Salazar released the binding on the wizard's mouth, and asked what he was doing here in Latin.

The ponce tried to keep silent, but Salazar's "Gom jabbar" soon taught him better. He began to answer Salazar's questions in Latin, with a disgusting accent that reminded Salazar of the Christian clergy in Rome.

What irked Salazar more was the content of Giuliani's answer: _this ponce apparently thinks I am also someone seeking the power of the Stone, and offers to share whatever information on the Hogwarts wards he gets from the "acromantulas" with me in exchange for partnership in stealing the Stone._

Salazar turned and tossed this enemy's mind, but he didn't find any trace of this wizard being manipulated by others, especially a certain descendant of his. This helped Salazar suppress his rage. He pretended to be interested in the offer, and probed for further information.

As it turned out, about forty years ago, the "acromantulas" were brought into the Forbidden Forest by some dim-wit half-giant servant without letting anyone else know. Wizards in Hogwarts only found out about the man-eating spiders last night, and planned to move them somewhere else. Giuliani's contact in some institution called "Ministry of Magic" notified him of this development, so he quickly formed a plan to contact the English-speaking spiders.

Salazar was almost seething in fire now. He didn't care whether some Muggles were eaten by the giant spiders, but to raise these spiders that could easily bite off the head of a wizarding kid so near the school -

-_Well, catastrophes could arise not only by the hands of clever villains such as the Tom Riddles, but also that by the hands of complete idiots. I really need to invent some new spells to use on the half-giant, and also invent some interdict to prevent any more half-beasts from exiting their mother's wombs! Of course, I need to kill all the spiders first._

Salazar knocked Giuliani unconscious, broke the defensive spells on Giuliani's pouch, and retrieved the other wizard's broomstick, for his Legilimency showed a glimpse of a broomstick that was flying much faster than the one Salazar owned. He touched the well-polished broomstick, and felt the delicate magic on it. This was indeed a fine work of art. Salazar tried the broomstick. The speed, smoothness, and control were superb.

Salazar threw a disillusionment charm on the unconscious Giuliani, tossed him into an empty backup pouch, and flew off.

_-Maybe the current wizards do possess some unexpected magic that I don't know of. Nagini didn't mention anything particular powerful about the broomstick spell, just that you could apply it onto your own bones. There must be some finesse in broomstick magic that is not Interdicted._

With help from the Hogwarts wards, Salazar quickly found Draco and a dozen wizards in red robes talking to a swarm of giant spiders larger than manticores.

Before Salazar flew near, he sensed some magic artefact that was much more powerful than those on Giuliani. He paused, and quickly determined that was some form of powerful magical detection device on one of the people in red robes, whom the Hogwarts wards told him was "Alastor Moody".

Salazar had heard that a Urulat wizard named Vance had attempted to create powerful magical artefacts that could replace aged parts on his body so as to make himself immortal - it was rumored that he even wanted to replace his heart with a magical artefact that he could transfer all his memories and thoughts to, and use it to think. Unfortunately, he was slayed by his enemies before he could make a heart, and the parts he already made were all robbed away. The Hogwarts Four had discussed how each body part Vance made might work, and the sense of detection was similar to what Rowena had speculated about the Eye of Vance, that it could see through magical illusions and non-magical obstructs. The Hogwarts Four had discussed this Eye of Vance and similar magical eyes, and believed that they only saw through "illusions", and thus you could create true light and true images to fool such devices. To put it simply, you could duplicate all the lights coming to your back and project the duplicated light to your front, and do this all around yourself. Therefore, the image the wielders of magical eyes saw was not illusions created by magic projected to the viewer's heart, but true light.

"Circaduplucem!" Salazar cast the powerful spell invented by Rowena and perfected by Helga, which was even taxing for Godric, the most powerful of the Hogwarts Four in terms of raw magic.

-_Well, if this doesn't work against the Eye of Vance, I can always stun the wearer._

Salazar flew nearer, and the holder of Eye of Vance didn't detect anything abnormal. Beside the holder, was little Draco.

The sight of little Draco made Salazar both happy and greatly annoyed. The sleek white-blond hair of that boy was identical to that of Armand and the first Draco, and the pointed face had some combined features of Armand and Salazar himself. The wand little Draco wielded was obviously made by none other than Salazar himself, with Armand's heartstring.

-_However, what the hell is Draco wearing? Slytherin House is surely aristocratic, and I am happy that the Malfoys are doing well now, but does he have to be more of a ponce than Giuliani? I need to have some stern talks with Lucius._

Then Salazar saw the oldest and largest giant spider nod to Draco, and then address something in vernacular to some smaller spiders. Draco then spoke something more to the spiders, seemingly gaining some respect from the leader of the spiders.

Salazar smiled at little Draco's success in the power play, but he still needed to know what was happening. Salazar retrieved Giuliani out from his spare pouch, woke him up, and forced him to translate the conversation below into Latin.

It seemed that Draco was teaching the acromantula patriarch Aragog how to rule its descendants better, and the giant spider had adopted Draco's advice on how to deal with the fraction of acromantulas that planned to sell Hogwarts' secrets.

-_Successful as little Draco is, doesn't he know cannibalistic beasts are never to be trusted? Too soft, and too naive. I need to teach him better._

Many powerful wizards had boasted in great detail on how they had won their combats with highly intelligent and powerful magical animals such as manticores, sphinxes, and trolls, but Salazar only used two very efficient spells: "Legilimens" and "Imperio". Obviously, no matter how spell-resistant the skins of the beasts were, they had never learnt how to protect their minds. And the human-language-speaking spiders were no exception to this rule.

A few well-placed mind-affecting charms later, a number of spiders suddenly started to openly rebel against their own patriarch.

Salazar observed the fights between several spiders, and it appeared that they were quite inefficient combatants when they were fighting each other. Their powerful legs that could easily break bones of human beings didn't cause too much damage when the legs of one spider clashed with another's, and the venom of acromantulas that could paralyze most types of prey was completely useless against another acromantula. What was worse, the cold-blooded nature of the giant spiders made them incapable of long intense fighting like wizards, therefore, for the most part, two dueling spiders were just circling each other.

-_If I want the spiders to quickly kill each other until there are no spiders left, I need to teach them a new way of fighting._

Salazar tried several ways, and it proved that although the inside part of the legs and the bottom of the feet of the acromantulas was resistant against the stickiness of spider silk, the other parts of their body were not. Therefore, ejecting spider silk from a distance toward the upper legs and body of enemy spiders to immobilize them was a good technique. Additionally, if one spider could rush quickly enough to overcome the other spider's defensive legs, or to attack from the top or bottom, as long as it could bite off some vital parts of the other spider, it was also a decisive win.

With the help of Legilimency, the smaller faction of rebellious acromantulas soon all learnt the advanced fighting techniques, and started to kill Aragog's faction with passable efficiency.

On the other hand, Salazar was glad to see that little Draco was no fool. The blond boy on a faster broomstick quickly recognized the advanced attack techniques, and taught them to Aragog's followers. When two bull-sized acromantulas in Aragog's faction retreated quickly as they were chased by several manticore-sized spiders, a number of smaller sheep-sized spiders jumped down from several trees onto the only path the chasers had to pass, biting down hard on the necks of the enemies, while the running acromantulas turned and ejected plenty of silk to bind the legs of the previous chasers.

Salazar grinned and taught the spiders how to organize an anti-ambush, then something about anti-anti-ambushes.

When Draco handed the spiders some sealed potion cauldrons and green glasses, Salazar was really intrigued, and conjured one pair for himself when all the Aurors turned their glasses green. He needed to see what this was about.

Salazar watched with amusement when Aragog's glasses-wearing underlings broke the seals on the cauldrons, piecing light erupted wherever the potion landed, and the green glasses apparently minimized the effect somehow, for Aragog's fraction was still able to attack while the other spiders were blinded by the strong light.

Salazar laughed, which sent the blinded Giuliani into shudders.

-_I have not had such fun in years! As naive a kid as little Draco is, he surely has potential. Well, he probably didn't think of the fact that the dense woods would diminish the effect of his potion. Let Grandpa Salazar teach you how to do better._

It was impossible for Lord Slytherin to brew a potion with similar effects within a short time, but it was easy to fake better effects with certain things in his pouch and some additional charms. Salazar retrieved several clay grenades of Greek Fire used by wizards in the Eastern Roman Empire, and charmed them into emitting strong light when they caught on fire. Salazar handed the clay containers to spiders in his faction, and continued watching.

When Aragog's faction charged, the rebels tossed out the grenades. Salazar had to admit that the spiders' legs were not made for throwing, so they didn't throw too far. But since the improved Greek Fire turned trees nearby into blinding torches, and Salazar's enchanted spiders were not affected by the searing light, the shortcoming was tolerable. As for little Draco's astonished and confused face - well, Salazar would have paid one-tenth of his gold to see it again.

-_Little Draco, didn't you see that the previous battle had some resemblance to your mock battle near Rowena's Chamber, when you were fighting against stronger enemies? Grandpa Salazar would teach you more._

"Qui puer, Draco Malfoy," Giuliani chose this moment to suggest his idea, "est utilis tool."

Salazar didn't need Giuliani to suggest that Draco could be an useful tool. This annoyed Lord Slytherin quite a lot.

Moreover, since Salazar observed that the wizards called "Aurors" protecting Draco were all wearing garments of similar quality to his prisoner's, he guessed that the textiles today were just far better than they were in the old days; and since the "Aurors" were riding broomsticks similar to his prisoner's, all inferior to Draco's, Salazar speculated the broomsticks today were just better as well.

Lord Slytherin reached the logical conclusion that Giuliani wasn't as rich as he thought before, and therefore this enemy of Hogwarts wasn't even good for ransom.

Giuliani seemed to have taken Salazar's silence as approval, and proposed ways to abduct Draco. Salazar's answer was pretty succinct: "Avada Kedavra."

When Draco began to suspect someone was toying with him, Salazar laughed, tossed Giuliani's body to the spiders, and Imperiused the spiders on both sides to kill each other until there were no spiders or eggs left.

Salazar Apparated back into Hogwarts, looking for Lucius.

-_Let me evaluate Lucius, and see if I shall plot something to free him from the Tom Riddles._


	31. Chapter 31 Descendants III, Lucius

All my thanks to Jared, Joe, and Kuilin, who beta-ed this chapter.

* * *

Chapter 31.

Descendants, Part III, Lucius Malfoy

10:14 am, June 28th, 1993

From the sparse Parseltongue dialogue and whatever Salazar could guess from conversations in vernacular, he had gathered that Lucius was now held as a political prisoner, while little Draco was serving as a lieutenant for the young Tom Riddle. Salazar could guess why this was the case: _Tom Riddle wants to separate little Draco from his father, so he can better manipulate little Draco. Moreover, he can use Lucius to threaten Draco, or use Draco to manipulate Lucius. That's why Draco goes into the Forbidden Forest to face cannibalistic giant spiders, and why Lucius is searching in pipelines for the unknown threat, aka, me. This young Tom Riddle also controls Severus with some leverage I haven't figured out yet. _

The games that the younger Tom Riddle were playing contained some basic manipulation techniques that Salazar had used, but when it came to some descendant Salazar disliked manipulating some descendants who had entertained Salazar, it was a different matter.

Therefore, Salazar needed to evaluate the worthiness of Lucius and Severus the Stutterer, to see if he needed to plot something to free these boys from Tom Riddles.

The result of the evaluation was quite unexpected.

Directing Lucius into an empty classroom temporarily hidden from anyone else's eyes was quite amusing. Salazar shifted the sewer that Lucius was in toward the empty classroom, and called through the pipelines: "_Greetingss, desscendant of Angitia and Draco, I mean you no harm._"

The mirror spell Salazar put in the sewer told him that the poor blue snake with black stripes completely froze, and the entire body turned a shade whiter. Obviously, Lucius assumed that Salazar was the older Tom Riddle whom he was looking for.

-_Oh, wait. Hoodwinked by Tom Riddles as Lucius is, mentally calling for dementors is indeed a cunning idea, at least, a good idea against the "evil" older Tom Riddle._

Salazar accessed Hogwarts wards, partially activated the ban on dementors installed after Lord Foul's attempt to use them in his attack, and called again, "_Come forward, Luciuss. Those dirty creaturess are banned from entering, but a clever thought if ussed elssewhere._"

The blue snake began to crawl reluctantly toward the only exit, while Salazar pondered how he should test Lucius' worthiness. He knew Lucius was weak in magic, but that could be a result of the Unbreakable Vow they had talked about. As for resourcefulness, Lucius definitely possessed some basic cunning, so he needed to use some advanced techniques to probe for higher level intelligence.

Just before entering the empty classroom, the blue snake animagus suddenly rushed and leapt toward the exit, twisting into human form the moment he entered the empty classroom, while a number of defensive magical items were triggered at the same time.

With a wave of wand, all the magical trinkets winked out, and the temporary wand in the starting gesture of a stunning hex also flew out from Lucius' hand. Salazar waved his wand again, the blond man was fully binded, including his opening mouth and twitching fingers that were undoubtedly trying to activate something.

Salazar showed himself in front of Lucius, and appraised the man with long white mane. He found more traces of his grandson-in-law in this grown man's features, for the first Draco was just a few years younger than this Lucius when Salazar left. The garments on the white-faced Lucius looked no less expensive than little Draco, his nails and hair were well-cared for, which meant Lucius was doing relatively alright as a prisoner, another proof of his cunning. The blue-grey eyes behind the glasses were appraising Salazar as well, which meant he hadn't given up while facing a much stronger unknown wizard.

"_Do not confusse me with any lessser wizardss, Luciuss._" Salazar said matter-of-factly. "_I am the Greatesst of Hogwartss Four, and the King of Sserpent. I am Ssalazar Sslytherin._"

Lucius' eyes widened as expected, and from a quickly suppressed sign of suspicion, he didn't fully believe Salazar just because Salazar stated his identity in Parseltongue.

-_Of course, I wouldn't believe others just because they said something in Parseltongue, because people can be memory charmed to believe that they are someone else. However, Lucius needs to train his face better, or is he playing at a level higher? _

"_Before I let you sspeak, no, I do not dessire to be involved in the current war fought by my desscendantss._" Salazar would rather prefer that his descendants were at peace with each other, but he didn't say that he wouldn't get involved in the war, did he?

Then Salazar threw Lucius a question that the blond man clearly didn't expect. "_How large iss the world?_"

Although Salazar was most interested in how to get to the Stone, he was indeed quite interested in the question he asked. Nagini had mentioned that quite some Interdicted spells Tom Riddle learnt were from an island nation "_where the ssun rissess_", which was further away than India or China. The furthest point Salazar had traveled was Isfahan in Persia, and he was quite interested in what existed in the world unknown to him, especially, Atlantis.

With another wave of wand, Lucius was able to speak. The blond man answered, "_Earth iss ball-sshaped, around eight-thoussand miless in diameter. There iss the New Continent, wesst of Atlantic Ocean -_"

_-Later wizards found Atlantis?_

Salazar had to suppress himself from calling out.

"_Many wizardss thought it wass Atlantiss when firsst found, but it wass not the casse. _" Lucius continued his answer, "_The ssame happened when another continent ssoutheasst of Assia, in the ssouthern hemissphere, wass found. Not Atlantiss. Many new isslandss were found, no Atlantiss._"

Salazar was quite disappointed that Atlantis was not found. However, the way Lucius worded his answer did create some dramatic effects in Salazar's heart, if not on his face. This meant Lucius was trying to gain some upper-hand while providing new information, which was both annoying and somewhat to Salazar's taste.

"_Powerful magic in other partss of the world wass found, though._" Lucius continued. "_I heard ssome wizardss in China reach magical agreements with powerful magical animalss, such ass ssnakess, foxess, and weasselss, and ssome really powerful magical animalss can adopt human formss._"

-_Hmm, it seems my basilisk idea is not that unique. By the way, are those "powerful magical animals" really animals, or are they powerful wizards with long-lived animagus forms? I have speculated the reason I am still relatively agile at this age, while many powerful wizards are no longer light-footed at around one hundred and forty, is my animagus form, which is a long-lived basilisk. Well, if I choose to spend most of my time as a basilisk, can I live a thousand years? _

_-By the way, Lucius can see where my question actually directs to. Good. _

"_And in -_" Lucius paused, as if searching for words.

"_You can usse Latin._" Salazar realized that Parseltongue probably didn't contain the names of new found places.

"_Can I draw a world map firsst?_" Lucius grasped the chance, and asked. "_Sso I can exxplain better._"

-_Cunning. Unfortunately for Lucius, I might have seen something from Giuliani's memory, but that small thing surely looked strange from his memory._

Salazar reached into Giuliani's pouch, and mentally called for the neatly binded small book he saw from the dark wizard's memory. What flew into his hand was a book only the size of the hand of an adult, and the parchment of the book was better polished than the finest lamb parchment that Salazar had ever seen. Salazar flipped a few pages of that book, and saw some meticulously drew graphs, and one of the graphs reminded Salazar of the shape of the Mediterranean Sea, so it must be a collection of maps. The scripts in the book were written in something resembling Latin, and the letters were definitely not written by hand, for there were no dents beneath the ink.

-_There are so many things that I don't know. _

Then Salazar started to project the graphs in the small book onto the blackboard in the classroom, and asked Lucius to explain.

As it turned out, the very first picture of the book was a world map. It took Salazar some time to understand the current cartography, and then Salazar was quite amazed by the vastness of the world.

Unlike most ignorant wizards in his time, Salazar knew for sure that the earth was a very large ball, and the sun was orbiting the earth. Actually, a wizard just needed to apparate eastward or westward to realize that the sun rose at different times at different locations; and one just needed to apparate northward or southward to observe the different angles of the sun at noon time. Moreover, Rowena had done some complex calculations, and proved that both Venus and Mars orbited around the sun, and the sun and the moon orbited around the earth. Unfortunately, something quite earthly took away the life of the first astronomy teacher in Hogwarts before she could delineate how Jupiter traveled.

Now, it seemed that later wizards had explored the Earth extensively, and Salazar, who had considered himself widely-traveled, had only been to a small fraction of the world. There were China and India where Salazar knew of but had never traveled to, the rest of Africa to the south of the great desert, the islands named "Japan" where Tom Riddle learnt a lot of his powerful magic, and the huge new continents named "America" and "Australia".

-_I have definitely made the right decision as to lock myself into the Mirror. I have so many new goals now._

-_Moreover, judging by how much the current wizards had improved the invention by Merlin's great-great granddaughter, could the current wizards have conquered the strong winds at great heights, and flown to the moon, the sun, and some stars? I would like to try._

"_How about the sstarss?_" Salazar asked.

Lucius became somewhat uneasy upon this question, and took in a deep breath before he answered, "_Muggless ssay there are one hundred thoussand million sstarss in our galaxxy, and thoussandss and millionss of galaxiess. Light needs to travel sseveral minutess to the ssun, and sseveral yearss to the nearesst starss._"

-_Wait, Muggles? What do they have to do with the ancient and noble arts of astronomy?_

"_Why did you quote Muggless' wordss about sstarss?_" Salazar hissed. He began to doubt Lucius' loyalty to the wizarding kind.

"_It iss posssible that Muggless know more about the sstarss and can predict fate of the sstarss better nowadayss._" Lucius' face was as white as chalk as he answered, "_And according to a paper I jusst read yessterday, in - _" Lucius changed into vernacular, said "American Mage", then changed back to Parseltongue, "_The Muggless have ssomething called -_", vernacular again, "nuclear weapon".

Lucius' lips twitched slightly before he spoke the last part, as if he was sure he would be killed the next second. "_It iss ssaid to have something to do with why the ssun and sstarss sshine. The way it workss ressembless ritualss, as it sacrificess masss and leadss to huge explossion that destroyss citiess insstantly._"

Salazar wasn't a good tempered man, but he had never killed any messenger who brought him bad news. Moreover, the bad news spoken in Parseltongue was simply too astonishing to Salazar.

Godric had been the holder of Line of Merlin Unbroken, therefore he had known a lot of Merlin's secrets. Soon after Hogwarts was built, Godric had gathered Salazar, Rowena, and Helga, and solemnly told them that there was a great danger that he only had some vague ideas of, and the other three needed to know of this danger for the preservation of all wizarding kind. It was a ritual that sacrificed mass, or "atomon", as defined by some ancient wizard in Greece. The ritual was only mentioned in some scratched notes by Merlin, and Merlin had to throw away his time and magic to build the Most Ancient Hall, so that the wizarding kind to have a chance to survive in case such ritual was ever invoked. Therefore, in case such unspeakable ritual was ever used against Hogwarts, they were not to resist, but to try to bring as many students as possible to the Most Ancient Hall.

-_It can't possibly be the one that I am thinking of. But huge explosion that destroys cities, that does sound like what Godric warned us of._

"_How doess it compared to Greek Fire?_" Salazar asked about the most powerful weapon that Muggles of his days could use - made by wizards, of course, and it was beyond Salazar's understanding as why wizards in Constantinople made them usable by Muggles.

Lucius seemed to need a second to remember what "Greek Fire" was, and answered. "_Much more powerful than Greek Fire. It iss reported that one mass-sacrificial weapon killed more than one hundred thousand Muggless about fifty yearss ago, and after two ssuch weaponss were ussed, a Muggle nation of seventy million people ssurrendered._"

A Muggle nation of seventy million people - that, that was almost beyond Salazar's imagination.

-_Was it somewhere around the total population of Roman Empire at the peak of its height? But if weapons that could invoke the ritual Godric warned us about were used, the only sensible action for a nation was to surrender. _

Salazar briefly imagined the surrender of Roman Empire at the height of its glory, and he had to admit it to himself that although he had laughed at the pathetic Muggle rulers of the barbaric England, ruling a Muggle nation such as Roman Empire was pretty attractive. Actually, Salazar knew that several emperors of the Roman Empires were rumored to be wizards before the Roman Empire chose the wizard-persecuting Christianity as its official religion.

-_However, if the power to let such a great nation surrender was controlled by some Muggle nation, the logical question is…_

"_Iss the Muggle world ruled by one nation now?_" Salazar suppressed his true question, which was - "_Are we sslavess of Muggless?_"

To Salazar's relief and confusion, Lucius was quickly answered, "_No, there are more than one hundred Muggle countriess in the world, and about half a dozen Muggle countriess used to have the weapon._" Then the blond man added, "_However, one of the weapon-wielding countriess collapssed two yearss ago, and a dozen ssmaller nationss arose from itss corpsse. Sseveruss, my sson Draco'ss godfather, planss to go there, to bribe officialss there to reveal their ssecretss._"

Then Salazar realized the horrifying implication.

-_About twenty Muggle countries with weapons that invoke mass sacrifice rituals! What is worse, they are definitely not friends with each other, since otherwise there would only be one nation in the world._

Salazar almost shuddered. Then he remembered Greek Fire, and the stupid wizards who made Greek Fire usable by Muggles. "_How? When? Which wizard wass sstupid enough to let Muggless know of ssuch ritualss?_"

Lucius was first genuinely confused by Salazar's questions, then dawning apprehension and open hatred appeared on his face. "_I am not certain who the traitor wass. I know the weapon wass firsst ussed by Muggless about fifty yearss ago, when there wass a war in both the Muggle and the wizarding worldss._"

Then, Lucius briefly explained the war with Grindelwald in Parseltongue with occasional vernacular for concepts not included in Parseltongue. Lucius explained Grindelwald's rise to power, the rumor that Grindelwald used Muggle sacrifices supplied by his Muggle allies to make himself invincible, how wizards from Great Britain, the United States of America, the Soviet Union, and a number of other countries joined forces against German, Italian and Japanese wizards, and how Albus Dumbledore defeated Grindelwald after Muggle Germany was defeated.

"_A few dayss after hiss victory, the Muggle-loving former transfiguration teacher became sschoolmasster, and holder of the Line of Merlin Unbroken. If my memory iss correct, the Muggle country acrosss Atlantic ussed the ritual-weapon on its enemy in Far Easst sseveral monthss after that._" For a moment, Lucius' face contorted with hatred and disgust, then he set his face, adding slowly, "_Wizardss acrosss the Atlantic and in Easstern Europe allied with Muggless even after the war. Sseveruss ssaid Muggle nationss and wizardss there ussed mudbloodss to do magical tesstss, and that wass why many powerful lordss emerged during the passt sseveral decadess._"

-_Holder of Line of Merlin Unbroken, and a Muggle-loving fool, who might have taught Muggles the insanely powerful ritual that Merlin himself needed to sacrifice his life and magic to guard against. _

This horrifying combination rendered Salazar completely speechless, and he was also outrageous toward the wizard named "Albus Dumbledore", who according to Lucius, was locked in Time.

In his full-fledged fury, Salazar's radiating magic might have gone wild, for the dusty decks and empty chairs began to shake, and Lucius' face twitched in horror. Salazar realized this, took in a deep breath, and calmed down.

-_What has happened is already so. I need to figure out how to take the weapons away from Muggles and most wizards. _

-_By the way, why did Lucius mention "German wizards", "Italian wizards", and "British wizards", as if wizards belong to certain Muggle countries? If that is the case, I need to select my helpers carefully if I want to steal the weapons from Muggles. If I want to steal the ritual-weapon from British Muggles, I may have to turn to wizards in other countries._

Salazar pondered the implications, and asked, "_Iss allying with Muggless common nowadayss? Why do current wizardss identify themsselvess with Muggle countriess?_"

Then Lucius started a long recounting of history, on how the Christian and Islamic Muggles had persecuted wizarding kind, how traitors in the International Confederation of Wizards had conspired with some secular Muggle governments so that secular Muggle powers could make the religious power look ridiculous, how the Malfoys had fought against the passing of _The International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy,_ how the Wizarding Counsel in Britain had grasped more and more power while imposing the _Statute of Secrecy_ onto the free-spirited wizarding kind, how the good-for-nothing wizards in Wizarding Counsel in Britain - and its equivalents elsewhere - had regular coordination with the very high-tops of the Muggle governments, and how these factors led to the formation of Ministries of Magic or their equivalents in every major Muggle country.

"_The Ministry hass extended its power to where it doess not belong, - they have even gone to the ridiculouss length as to determine the thicknesss of cauldronss. Now, about sseventy percent of the total working adultss in Wizarding Britain have ssomething to do with the Ministry of Magic._" Lucius concluded his recount on recent history with this shocking remark.

Salazar listened and listened. He could understand the motives of some wizards in each step, but the stupidity in its entirety was beyond his wildest imagination.

-_How could wizards as a whole accept something more oppressive than the Muggle kings? What is worse, for every three wizards who do actual work, seven other wizards just join the "Ministry of Magic", and rob their products? How could a society be stable? In the name of Atlantis, I need to overthrow this ridiculous thing and form a better kind of ruling order. But then… _

"_No wizardss had tried to overthrow this farcce?_" Salazar asked incredulously.

To this question, Lucius smiled bitterly, and described the rise and fall of Tom Riddle, whose was also known as You-Know-Who, and Lord Voldemort.

From Lucius' perspective, the rise of Tom Riddle made quite some sense to Salazar - Tom Riddle claimed that the decline in magic was caused by the influx of mudbloods and thinning of wizarding blood; and not to mention that the level of corruption and bureaucracy in the Ministry of Magic were astonishing.

Lucius explained that the taxes imposed on people who did real work were so high that many good old families were driven out of business, and international commerce declined every year. Then, of course, good purebloods who were irked by the Muggle-loving propaganda enforced by the Ministry, annoyed by the ridiculous regulations made up by the good-for-nothing officials, and stolen from by the hefty taxes imposed by the Ministry, joined Tom Riddle who called himself "Lord Voldemort" in his bid against the Ministry.

"_In one casse, they impossed a sixty percent import taxx on wine and beer, because the ssmall plebeian brewerss, a lot of them mudbloodss and Muggle-loverss, yearned it. As a result, mosst European countriess impossed a sixty percent import taxx on wine and beer produced in Britain._" Lucius seemed to have tried to stop himself, but something slipped out, maybe intentionally. "_The middle-end Malfoy elf-made drinkss losst about seventy percent of businesss in the Continent for thiss reasson. How could I not be attracted by Riddle'ss ideass?_"

-_Oh, Malfoys. _

With a headache, Salazar remembered how efficient a lieutenant Armand had been when it had come to logistic matters, and how the first Draco could correctly convert between Galleons and Sickles before he could properly speak.

Salazar had to silently take in a breath, and reminded himself why he had agreed to Draco and Angitia's marriage: _the snake animagus had stated in Parseltongue that he valued family more than money, and he wholeheartedly agreed with Salazar's idea on blood-purity. _

-_On the other hand, Tom Riddle's reasons against the Ministry of Magic and Lucius' alliance with him were indeed reasonable. Unfortunately for Lucius, I guess the Tom Riddles believed in nothing in particular. _

Then, Lucius recounted the incredibly clever and efficient tactics used by You-Know-Who, and some of the confusing orders that Lucius had weaseled out of. "_He ordered uss to kill all the Monroes including the house-elvess, except David, the sstrongesst. The old Lady Monroe wass againsst us, but her two ssonss were actually ssympathetic toward our causse. If we only asssasssinated the old woman, making it look like a natural death from old age, we could've had a noble housse on our sside, and let David fight with hiss father and uncle. Why terminate a pureblood old housse?Or if the Monroess had to be sacrificed to sserve as an example, why did he want to leave the sstrongesst unsscathed? _"

Salazar knew the answer the instant he heard about the story: _it was because this "David Monroe" was actually another Tom Riddle._

-_This is completely insane. The Muggles have weapons with the power of mass sacrifice, and the most powerful wizard of the last two centuries has a hobby of splitting himself and fighting with himself. I wonder why the world is still largely intact at this moment. _

Salazar wasn't surprised at all when Lucius mentioned a few occasions when Tom Riddle had refused to take advice from Lucius and others that might have led to an instant victory.

Lucius recounted the loss of Narcissa, his former lord's cold laugh and refusal for revenge. "_I wass heart-broken, angry, confused, and afraid. I realized that he wouldn't look after any of our familiess in casse we died for the causse, and I wass the only protection that Draco had. I tried to sstay home ass much ass posssible, and kept Draco in my armss every night. The burn markss in my bedroom were a consstant reminder of my misstake and what it had cost me._"

Salazar saw the glistening in Lucius' eyes, and knew the game Lucius was trying to play now - the use of real emotions, an advanced technique - yet it did gain a few points for Lucius, and it increased Salazar's loathing toward Tom Riddle, for this Tom Riddle was completely unworthy as a leader of any kind.

Before Salazar grew any impatience toward the sentimental things, Lucius began to describe the disappearance of the Dark Lord on the Halloween of 1981, and glossed over the ten years before Draco met Harry Potter.

"_After what sseemed like the mudblood girl had tried to kill Draco - now I ssusspect the Dark Lord framed her - I brought Draco home._" Lucius' face was quite confused by this point. "_What I found shocked me. The-Boy-Who-Lived had talked Draco into believing outrageouss liess, such asss mudbloodss were no different from uss, yet I later got a feeling that he did thiss for good purposess, such as to deter Draco from doing thingss that could offend Muggless. He gave Draco bookss that depicted the power and knowledge of current Muggless, that Muggless had sent people to the moon, and Muggle'ss advanced knowledge in asstronomy._"

-_And that was why Lucius mentioned "Muggles" in the first place, and all the later talks about the ritual-weapon. He wanted to deter me from killing Muggles before knowing what they are capable of._

_-Well, what Lucius did was the right thing to do. I might have killed Muggles unwittingly if I did not know, and my actions might lead to disasters for the wizarding kind. To be fair, Lucius did this with the clear knowledge that I despise Muggles and mudbloods, and he might have anticipated punishment for bringing the bad news. Luckily for him, I am better than that._

Salazar nodded to Lucius, encouraging him to speak on.

Lucius delineated the meeting between the Malfoys and Harry Potter in Gringotts, and, more importantly, the night one year before, especially the Unbreakable Vow that had took much of his magic.

"_The contentss of the Vow are ass followss: 'I vow that I sshall not by any act of mine destroy the world. I shall take no chances in not destroying the world. If my hand iss forced, I may take the coursse of lessser desstruction over greater desstruction unlesss it sseems to me that thiss Vow itsself leadss to the world's end, and the friend in whom I have confided honesstly agreess that thiss iss sso. By my own free will, sso sshall it be.'_" Lucius recounted the exact words with a white face, as if both horrified by the implication of the Unbreakable Vow, and missing his magic lost in it. He took in a deep breath, "_Later, the Dark Lord's wordss in Parsseltongue stated that he wass convinced that there wass a Prophecy that if thingss around that boy went wrong, he might desstroy the world. And the Dark Lord and the Boy-Who-Lived discussed in Parsseltongue about the ability of the boy to desstroy the world, and both believed the boy wass capable of ssuch thingss, and the boy threatened the Dark Lord in Parsseltongue with huge explosionss that could kill all of uss, and he could accept no lesss than the Dark Lord'ss 'promisse to treat nationss kindly under your rule'. Then, I ssaw my headless body dropping to the ground, and I died, perhaps alongsside thirty-five other Death Eaterss._"

Salazar had to slow down to absorb the implications of this, and Lucius promptly stopped talking.

-_The older Tom Riddle believed that there was a Prophecy that the younger one might destroy the world, and both believed the younger one was capable of it. For whatever reason, the younger one truly believed that he wanted nice things for the world. _

_What a delight! _Salazar thought sarcastically. _First, my most powerful descendant is insane; and second, the world might be destroyed by one version of him. I need to figure out what happened, and then literally save the world from destruction._

_-Seeing it from this point of view, I can understand why Lucius is so willing to cooperate in the younger Tom Riddle's plots, because Lucius doesn't want to destroy the world. Moreover, Lucius might have actually saved the world from my potential mistakes. I need to reward him, but I can't free him from the Tom Riddles immediately, for that might complicate matters._

Salazar sized Lucius up again, and said, "_You have truly done well, Lucius, descendant of Draco and Angitia._"

Lucius seemed to be surprised by Salazar's praise, and then his eyes dilated and his lips trembled.

-_Oh, for the sake of Atlantis, what have you done to your subordinates, Tom Riddle!_

Salazar was greatly annoyed by Lucius' expectation of death, and added another account of crime to Tom Riddle. "_I mean you no harm._"

As Lucius calmed down, or appeared to, Salazar reached into one of his pouches, obtained Rowena's Diadem, and put it onto the ground in front of Lucius. "_I want your help to cleanse the dirt of death magic on Rowena's Diadem. And -_" Salazar reached into his other pouch, and retrieved an oak wand from his hair-wand collections, "_Thiss iss wand made from Armand'ss hair, that I occasionally usse. You should be able to usse it._"

Salazar threw the wand with a core of Armand's hair onto the ground in front of Lucius, waved his own wand, and freed Lucius from his magical binding. "_Usse the improved Guardian Charm on the Diadem._"

-_I need to observe for myself on how Lucius uses it, in case he knows more about it from the vernacular instructions Severus gave._

The blond man slowly stretched his limbs, being careful not to cause any misunderstandings, gingerly picked up the oak wand, and cast. "Expecto Patronum!"

To Salazar's slight dismay, a white ball no brighter than Salazar's own improved Patronus formed from Lucius' wand tip.

-_Lucius probably has the same level of understanding of the charm as I do. _

However, the advanced Patronus did seem to have life magic in it. As the residue of death magic on the Diadem was slowly removed, the sapphire and amber on the Diadem began to shine.

Salazar pondered further on the improved Patronus, and the new shielding charm that had been circling at the back of his mind for several hours. "_I shall need your help in tessting one of my newesst inventionss. Afterwardss, you may keep some hintss about thiss charm. - By the way, keep practissing powerful magic, for you are sstill young, and raw magical power can grow until you are one-hundred years old._"


	32. Chapter 32 Descendants IV, Severus

All my thanks to Jared, Joe, and Kuilin, who beta-ed this chapter.

* * *

Chapter 32.

Descendants, Part IV, Severus Snape

10:10 am, June 28th, 1993

After proper use of memory charms and five turns of his Time-Turner, Lucius was put back into the sewer, leaving Salazar all to himself.

From extensive exploration of Giuliani's mind, Salazar saw that Giuliani had talked to portraits on various occasions, and the portraits seemed to respond in a reasonable way. The portraits in Salazar's time could only enunciate very simple sentences, or carry out simple tasks such as opening doors only to those that knew certain passwords. It seemed that later wizards had developed better portrait techniques. Since Nagini mentioned nothing of it, it must be another non-Interdicted yet interesting development. With any luck, Salazar could grab a portrait that could speak both Latin and the current vernacular, and use it as a translator.

Salazar disillusioned himself again, and walked into the corridors. The first portrait he saw was a drawing of two witches in extravagant garments, the collars of which were wider than their shoulders. The witches were whispering to each other in a language resembling French, and constantly looking around in alert.

-_So the portraits are indeed much better these days. _

Salazar pointed his wand to the frame of the portrait, and felt the delicate magic and the link of it with Hogwarts. It seemed that all portraits were made to obey orders from the current headmaster or headmistress of Hogwarts, which made things very convenient for Salazar. With a few twists similar to what Salazar had already done to the house-elves before he entered the Mirror, all the portraits in Hogwarts would obey Salazar first, and then the current headmaster and headmistress only if Salazar had not ordered them otherwise.

Salazar had been tempted to get a portrait of a passed headmaster or headmistress for their superior knowledge, but that was too obvious, so he settled for a portrait hanging in a deserted corner. The eccentric wizard depicted in the portrait was Roderick Plumpton, who had been a seeker in the ridiculous game nowadays called "Quidditch", a painter later in life, and died from old age four years ago.

As Plumpton explained, the use of someone's willingly donated blood and memory before they died, alongside with some special techniques, could make portraits behave like the persons depicted in them. The original aim of wizarding painters was to use the advanced portraits to bypass the Interdict of Merlin, but that was unsuccessful.

With the help from Plumpton, Salazar knew that the younger Tom Riddle who called himself "Harry Potter" wanted to use the Mirror to lock the current out-and-running adult Tom Riddle and all his horcruxes in Time. "Harry Potter" had told Severus and the "Auror" named Moody, that the ritual would require himself to be sacrificed, and be locked in Time as well. "Harry Potter" asked Severus and Moody's help in setting up this magic and then being obliviated, to which both men agreed.

What Salazar heard was quite confusing: _what is this younger Riddle actually planning to do? What he has planned can indeed lock all Riddles up - well, if I haven't cleaned the dirt from Rowena's Diadem, I can lock all Tom Riddles in Time now. But why would he do it? Does he really consider himself a hero like Godric? Or maybe this Plumpton is such an idiot that he completely mistranslated things._

Then, in private, "Harry Potter" told the girl emanating the smell of unicorn that since he was indeed another Tom Riddle, once the magic of the Mirror was triggered, he would also be locked in Time. This girl named "Hermione Granger" and little Draco should lead human beings to advance magic and something called "science" for the next several hundred years, conquer other galaxies, evacuate something called the "Milky Way Galaxy", then release all Tom Riddles from the Mirror. At that time, she should save this "Harry Potter" and the obliviated Tom Riddle in the form of a ring, then -

The younger Tom Riddle's words were cut off at this point, maybe because he literally couldn't say what would happen in the next step. However, Salazar could guess: _the younger Tom Riddle is implying that the Granger girl should destroy the "Milky Way Galaxy", and in this way, the Prophecy that this Tom Riddle would destroy the world would be fulfilled in the best possible way._

Salazar ignored the various sounds made by the Granger girl, and mulled over the younger Tom Riddle's statement for quite some time. When he finally reached a passable answer for the motive of this particular Tom Riddle, it was just as crazy as the previous possibilities Salazar had thought of: _this Riddle has found the many horcruxes and the many versions of "Tom Riddle" annoying, or he thought his many horcruxes might lead to world destruction. However, some of the horcruxes were so well-hidden that even he himself can't find them. The only way that he could think of to get rid of all other Tom Riddles was to blast the whole earth plus nearby stars. _

Needless to say, Salazar had quite a headache absorbing this new information. However, if there was a possibility to lock all the Riddles in Time for a while, Lord Slytherin would surely help, even if that meant delaying the formulation of his plot to use the Stone for a few days.

In the Headmistress' Office, the younger Tom Riddle showed Severus the Stutterer and Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody some notes from the Muggle-loving fool Albus Dumbledore, and some older notes from his Line of Merlin Unbroken heritage, then asked them if they could figure out the details of how to lock someone in Time, and how to control the process remotely.

Naturally, Lord Slytherin took this chance to duplicate all the notes that he could lay his hands on, examined the notes in an empty classroom nearby, and kept a keen ear on the Headmistress' office. In case they couldn't work out the details after a while, Salazar wouldn't mind secretly offering them some hints.

Luckily for Salazar, most notes passed down from the holders of Line of Merlin Unbroken before Karen Dutton, the stupid witch who chose Dumbledore as her successor, were written in Greek, Latin, and occasional ancient Runes and Hebrew, all of which Salazar could understand pretty well.

In all the notes left by Merlin himself, Salazar could only find one piece of half-torn paper that contained something related to the mass-sacrificial ritual that Godric and Lucius warned him about. The letters on it were almost illegible scratches, and Salazar could only decipher "atomos", "lux", "stella", and "mors", the last of which was written quite a number of times, as if the writer was in great agony and anxiety.

-_Atom, light, stars, and death. What do they mean? Death would be the result, atom would be the things sacrificed, and Lucius mentioned something about "why the stars shine"... But why? How?_

Although common sense told Salazar that since the ritual-weapon had not destroyed the world during the past fifty years, it was unlikely to destroy the world in the next few days, Salazar's mind was still preoccupied by it, and even the rest of Merlin's notes that contained hints of a number of powerful spells and rituals had lost their attraction to Salazar at this moment.

-_Lucius told me that Severus knew more about the weapon, and Severus might also have means to lay his hands on the weapon. Therefore, I need to liberate Severus from his current task on figuring out how to use the Mirror soon._

From Plumpton's translation, it seemed that Moody and Severus spent almost a day, pondering on how to communicate one's wishes with the Mirror, before the younger Tom Riddle finally spoke up.

"Ponite occlumency obice, suspicor." Plumpton translated the younger Tom Riddle's words.

Salazar sighed inwardly.

-_If Tom Riddle is going to give information as simple as "drop your occlumency barrier" at this rate, I may need to wait until the next year for anything to really happen._

Salazar pointed his wand toward the general direction of the headmistress' office, and cast, "Siticulos."

The simple Siticulos spell that Salazar learnt from Constantinople was quite harmless by itself, and it did nothing except making people in that general direction thirsty. However, if it was cast by several powerful wizards with all their strength, it would lead to the entire enemy army consume much more water than planned, and thus it was a very powerful spell while fighting in arid areas such as Egypt. In this case, the spell would only lead to the inconspicuous need for the loo within one or two few hours.

Salazar pointed his wand to the wall of the empty classroom, and connected himself to the wards. He located the private toilet attached to the headmistress' office, which was only added long after the conjuration of Hogwarts, and made some small adjustment in sound transmission of the toilet. Salazar didn't quite understand the need for "privacy" instead of socialization while using the toilet or the bathroom, but since this new trend worked to his advantage at this time, he wasn't going to complain.

Then, the old lord waited patiently while flipping through the notes left by the holders of Line of Merlin Unbroken, looking for anything related to "atomos", "lux", and "stella", while keeping an ear on the headmistress' office.

Approximately one hour later, the younger Tom Riddle needed to use the toilet. Both Severus and Moody went into the toilet together with the "Boy-Who-Lived", and checked the toilet thoroughly. Unfortunately for them, the modifications Salazar did was indeed part of the castle, and the Eye of Vance had a limit for how many walls it could see pass through.

Salazar approved the companion of others while in potential danger in principle, -that was, if it was not in the way of his plot.

-_Didn't Plumpton say current population need "privacy"? Do I need to make up a new plot?_

Luckily, Severus and Moody soon left the toilet, and left the younger Tom Riddle all to himself. A while later, the younger Riddle left the toilet, and Severus entered.

Salazar carefully applied a white-blue shield of Protego Vitamaxima in the innermost circle, an invisible single-sided silencing charm in the second circle, another invisible single-sided smell concealing charm in the third circle, and a Circaduplucem to the outmost circle. Before entering the Mirror, Salazar used to apply one spell of his own creation that served both as protection and concealment before Apparation; now, with the invention of Protego Vitamaxima, he wouldn't trust any lesser protection spells, yet he didn't have time to create a new combinatorial spell. Although Salazar was reluctant to admit it, the fact was, applying all four separate spells in a row was a bit stretching for the Greatest of Hogwarts Four.

Salazar checked the new combination of shield and concealment again, and apparated into the headmistress' large bathroom while the sound of toilet flushing began.

To Salazar's both delight and annoyment, the second he landed in the bathroom, the black-haired wizard who was reaching for the faucet suddenly had his wand in hand, and cursed toward the general direction of where Salazar landed: "Ava -"

Salazar's stunning hex smashed through the faint blue shield just started to spring out from some trinket attached to Severus' robes, and rendered the black-haired wizard completely immobile.

Just as Salazar grabbed Severus' wrist and prepared to apparate again, another version of a slightly confused looking Severus appeared from nowhere.

"_Go quickly,_" Salazar heard the slightly strange sound of himself hissing.

Lord Slytherin didn't need more cues, for he knew it was hard even for himself to produce a believable illusion for the holder of Eye of Vance for a prolonged period of time.

When Salazar apparated back to the empty classroom, he didn't take off the illusions immediately, for he knew he was sweating and slightly panting from the succession of protection and illusion spells, the two apparitions, and the powerful stunning hex. For some reason, Salazar didn't want his descendant to see it, even if he knew that Severus would be obliviated afterwards.

-_For the sake of Atlantis, I could do this type of thing five times in a row and still had energy for a dance merely ten years ago, - oh, well, ten years ago for me anyway. And now, my bones and joints start to protest, and my heart is pounding so fast._

The aged Lord Slytherin wiped his forehead, composed his breathing, and sized Severus the Stutterer up and down.

The black-haired wizard still had horrified looks frozen on his yellowish face; his black tunneling eyes that resembled Salazar's in his younger years were calculating, maybe because he knew that he would be returned to the very toilet, apparently unharmed; his shoulder-length hair was oily and unkempt, which suited Salazar's taste better than the overtly looked-after white blonde hair of the Malfoys; his black robes were as expensive looking as Lucius', yet dirt and dried moth marred the elegancy of the garments - from his previous search in the tunnels, probably; his fingernails were dry and cracking, and he still held his black wand firmly in his right hand.

Salazar cancelled the concealments, and showed himself in front of Severus. He accioed Severus' wand and pouch without a word or any wand movements, for the appearance of omnipotence was important for the smooth continuation of the conversation to come.

"_Greetingss, Sseveruss, my desscendant. Nicce triess for calling for the dirty creaturess._" Salazar hissed.

The horrifying apprehension and confusion in Severus' eyes brought Salazar a smirk, then his smirk froze slightly: _Severus isn't thinking that I am Tom Riddle, and I am his true father, is he?_

With the slight headache that associated with Tom Riddles, the aged lord continued, "_I am Ssalazar Sslytherin, the Greatesst of Hogwartss Four. I mean you no harm. _"

Confusion, disbelief, and relief flashed through Severus' eyes, then everything was replaced by the emptiness of occlumency.

Salazar had considered trying legilimency on Severus, but decided against it, for the possible failure might infringe his appearance of omnipotence - _mental defense is just too simple as comparing to offense, and Tom Riddle wouldn't trust someone without a perfect occlumency barrier for any important secret task._

Since Severus might have figured out that Salazar was the hand behind Lucius' "invention" of Protego Vitamaxima among other things by this point, Salazar did not give Severus the chance to show off his cunning. "_And yess, I ssummoned the ssnakess to sschool, killed man-eating sspiderss, and had an interesting converssation with Luciuss._"

-_But then, Lucius told Severus everything without considering the consequences. Was Lucius deceived of the level of friendship between them by Severus; or did Lucius do this on purpose, for he noticed something was wrong with him, and he wanted people to know, and wanted Severus to feel guilty about revealing it? Hmm. With descendants like this, one may never have a dull moment in life._

"_Did you descend from the Malfoy line, or the Gaunt line?_" Salazar asked casually, for making Severus too nervous or hostile would be bad for later conversation.

After Salazar waved his hand, Severus the Stutterer spoke slowly, "_Ak-cording to Luciuss, I am hiss v-fourth k-cousin, and fiv-fth cousin oncce l-removed,._"

There was some strangeness in the way that Severus answered his question, and with Severus' previous reaction when he heard that he was Salazar's descendant…

-_Is Severus a bastard or orphan who doesn't know his true parentage?_

Salazar silently hoped that Severus wasn't really Tom Riddle's son, for he could deal with the possibility that Severus was Lucius' illegitimate brother, but Salazar didn't want any family drama involving the very descendant that he wanted to lock in Time.

Salazar decided to skip the cunning small talks that might lead to more headache, asked the question that he cared about most. "_What do you know about the weapon that invokess the ritual which ssacrificess atomonss or masss, and caussess huge exxplosions?_"

Salazar might have seen true confusion and the shock flashed passed Severus' eyes. However, these might just be Severus' covers, since although you couldn't tell lies in Parseltongue, there was no rule about your expressions.

Then, the black-haired wizard spoke slowly, "_Not ssure j-you are … to know._"

Salazar frowned upon the answer. Salazar knew he should be careful with such rituals, but Lucius had said some of his knowledge came from a "paper" distributed by some wizards in one of the new continents, and it didn't sound that well-kept -

"_Luciuss told me about paper distributed by - _" Salazar changed to the vernacular he yet to learn, and mimicked Lucius' pronunciation, "Amirikan", then turned back to Parseltongue. "_It hass written much about the ssecretss._"

Severus' face twitched slightly, his breath became a bit uneven. After a while, Severus slowly began, "_Do not get near d-thesse v-weaponss. P-Powerful wizardss may l-render -_" Severus searched for words, then said. "_A lot ov-f Muggle dew-vicess invented in the passt one hun-dred j-yearss or sso broken. Thiss type of v-weapon can be more dangel-rouss if broken. Sseven yearss ago, ssomev-where in Easstern Eul-Europe, more d-than one hun-dred thousand … people have to be ew-evacuated becausse ssomething like that b-broke._"

Salazar nodded slowly, and then realized why Severus was reluctant to reveal information about the ritual-weapon. "_I have no intention to usse or own such weaponss, only to take them away from unworthy wielderss, Muggle and wizardss alike. And before I can rid the world of ssuch danger, I have no intention to antagonize Muggle governmentss or groupss that wield the horrible ritual weaponss by any meanss, ssuch ass hurting Muggless._"

Severus opened his mouth, then paused. He regarded Salazar carefully, and asked, "_Muggle-b-bornss?_"

Those dirty illiterate creatures irked Salazar greatly, and he always thought the mudbloods should never be allowed to learn magic. However, Severus did raise a valid point: _hurting mudbloods may lead to retaliations from Muggles. By the way, he called them "Muggleborns", like the good and great Lord Gryffindor did. Hmm -_

"_I sshall not hurt mudbloodss or Muggless unlesss by not doing sso may hurt mysself or Hogwartss._" Salazar promised. "_And I have no intention to lead to the desstruction of the world._"

From Severus' silent mouth movements, Salazar guessed the black-haired wizard might have cursed Lucius. Then the black-haired stutterer said, "_The Girl-Who-l-Revived, hass uni-corn blood insside, bl-bringss good luck v-while alive. Do not v-want to imagine v-what would happen if she d-diess. Her pal-parentss are ssquibss._"

-_Ah, when there is a prophecy that a version of you might bring an end to the world, keep a living luck maximizer around you. Tom Riddle is surely cunning, and he is capable of creating great disasters if things do not go his way - in case the mudblood girl named "Hermione Granger" dies, the retribution from the Universe might really destroy the world. And that's why Severus brought out the topic on mudbloods._

The grim prospect that Lord Slytherin the famous blood purist might be forced into protecting a mudblood girl irked the aged lord greatly, yet he knew better than to challenge the Universe. With an inward sigh and another note to punish all the Tom Riddles with creative methods, Salazar promised reluctantly, "_I shall not hurt the girl with unicorn blood, and shall protect her if it iss necesssary._"

Noticing that Severus seemed a bit relaxed after hearing this, Salazar had a brief impulse to punish the stutterer for delivering the blackmail sent by Tom Riddle to the entire world, but he held himself better than that, for he knew that Severus did the right thing as to warn him of the things that might lead to great disaster, such as hurting the mudblood girl, or getting near to the ritual-weapons without understanding them first.

"_Any other dangerss that I should be aware of?_" Salazar hissed.

Severus frowned, then answered, "_The Sstone d-that makess transsv-figuration permanent. The Sstone can be used in dan-dangerous v-wayss . For v-what iss worsse, the Boy-Who-Lived ov-offered the sservice of the Sstone to every-one a j-year ago. Many pov-powerful wizardss, gl-groupss, and nationss dessire the Sstone all for … d-themsselvess. World v-warss might sstart._"

Salazar nodded to the information that he had already inferred from the various times that the Hogwarts wards were triggered by outside wizards, and the Giuliani guy that he had killed. "_I have a plan to deal with that._"

Salazar's plan was to awe the powerful lords in the world into submission, as Merlin did, and to proclaim Hogwarts and the Stone of Permanency as his. Although, due to the utter stupidity of the younger Tom Riddle, Salazar might not be able to deprive the use of the Stone from wizards all over the world, for that would definitely lead to a world war, and even the combined forces of the Hogwarts Four at the height of their powers might not be enough to defend Hogwarts from the combined forces from all the wizards in the world, not to mention some might have access to the ritual-weapon.

However, before Salazar could execute his plan, he needed to regain his youth first. And for that part, Salazar might need a living person's help, preferably a Parselmouth. Salazar only knew four possible Parselmouths, including Tom Riddle, Severus, Lucius, and Draco. Out of these four, Tom Riddle was his enemy, Lucius was held as a political prisoner, Draco was too young, therefore, Severus was the most convenient option. That was, before Salazar found other Parselmouths.

"_Who do you know are Parsselmouthss?_" Salazar asked.

Severus hesitated.

Salazar gave an impatient hiss. "_Any danger in thiss ass well?_"

"_Not s-sure if dan-dangerouss._" Severus answered reluctantly. "_Can n-name ssome. A-Albuss, v-former sschool-masster, iss one, but he iss ... locked in Time. Bartimuss-_" Severus changed into vernacular to say "Crouch", then back to Parseltongue, "_Might be one, but he v-went cl-crazy when hiss only sson died._" Then he paused.

-_Wait, the Muggle-loving fool is a descendant of mine as well? What a delight! Now that I have one descendant who possibly handed the world-ending ritual to Muggles, and one descendant who has a hobby of splitting himself up, fighting himself, and possibly ending the world._

_-By the way, Severus isn't providing any useful information by naming one person who was locked in Time and another who went crazy. What is he hiding? _

_-Ah, the fact that the younger Tom Riddle is a Parselmouth, because Severus still thinks the "boy" is some great figure to be protected, and he is afraid that I might utilize the "boy" for something and causes great danger to the world._

Salazar hissed. "_I already knew the one that current wizards call 'the Boy-Who-Lived' and the Malfoyss are Parsselmouthss._"

Severus paused, his eyes might became a little more empty, and then he said, "_I j-just know one m-more P-Parsselmouth, the Dark Lord -_" In vernacular, Severus said the name, "Tom Riddle", then supplemented in Parseltongue, "_No idea v-where he iss. He iss very dan-dangerouss._"

Salazar nodded to the disappointing news that there were only such a limited number of Parselmouths nowadays, and Severus seemed to be the only one available for the task of helping Salazar to regain his youth.

-_Well, Severus isn't a bad choice, actually. His magical power is mediocre, but that level of magic is considered "powerful" per current standards. The "Auror" named Moody only has the same level of magic as Severus does, yet he was entrusted by the young Riddle to guard the Stone, and many enemies of Hogwarts have apparently failed to challenge Moody's wards. Moreover, Severus is discrete, cunning, and interesting. As a bonus, Severus knows quite something about the powerful ritual weapon, and maybe somewhat how the current Muggle society. Therefore, Severus is about as good as I can get as a helper. However, I need to know what leverage I can use on him, if he is to be trusted, and how to convince him to go along with my plan. _

-_Severus is obviously a sane man who doesn't want the world to end, so maybe I can convince him that helping me would help the world. However, most people cannot be easily motivated by such grandeur pursuits if going down such paths may require them to do something as simple as changing their traveling methods from broomstick to flying carpets. Severus seems to be better than that, but I'd better not take the risk before I know him better. Money is a common tools to motivate people, but since Severus used the Stone for several hours during that interesting night, I guess he already has plenty of gold. Personal ambition, then. I hope the ex-Head of my House has the ambition to become a really powerful wizard._

"_What languagess can you sspeak?_" Salazar asked, for learning as many ancient language as you could was a standard requirement for anyone who was serious in power since the Interdict of Merlin.

"_English, F-French, Old English, Old Fl-French, Latin, Ancient Gl-Greek, Runess, Hebrew, P-Parsseltongue, ssome Hiel-Hieroglyph, ssome Old German, and I am learn-learning Sspanish and - _" Severus changed into vernacular, "Russian."

-_Twelve besides the current English and Parseltongue, acceptable. It seems that Severus has been determined to gain more power for quite some time, for you do not learn a dozen languages in a short time. He should at least add Aramaic, Arabic, Cuneiform, Persian, and Sanskrit to his list, though. On a second thought, he - and I - should also learn Chinese and the language called "Jaepeneese", for Tom Riddle has gained much knowledge over there._

_-Severus' intelligence and cunning are already tested, so he is an acceptable helper. _

The ancient lord hissed. "_If you agree to help me to regain youth ssecretly, I would help you to defeat my desscendent from the Gaunt line, the persson you call the Dark Lord._"

Obviously, Salazar didn't bother to mention the fact that he would defeat the Tom Riddles whether Severus chose to cooperate or not.

The black-haired man's face turned grey, then hissed as if he was facing his own death. "_I sshall not help you ssteal or l-rob the Sstone, for d-that may lead to v-world desstruction._"

The old wizard suppressed his annoyance, and hissed: "_Have no plan to ssteal or rob the Sstone, jusst to usse it ass sso many otherss from the entire world have._"

-_Well, of course, after I have awed all the powerful wizards in the world into submission, I plan to publicly claim the Stone as my own. But before that, I can be temporarily content at going back to my early thirties._

Severus eyed Salazar with great suspicion, and asked: "_I am a P-Parsselmouth, sso iss d-the Boy-v-Who-Lived. Kv-Quicker if you reveal yoursself in fl-front of him and assk. V-Why me?_"

-_Because the so-called "the Boy-Who-Lived" is Tom Riddle, you fool!_

"_Ass Luciuss and you have said, too much danger in and around him._" Salazar carefully chose what he could say without revealing the boy's true identity, for as long as the younger Tom Riddle were to be confident that he was under a perfect cover of a young hero, he must act the part of hero in front of other's eyes, and made the world safer. "_No plan to tilt world balance toward danger in any way or form. Shall not explain in more detailss, for that might be dangerouss._"

Though Severus didn't seem to be convinced by this answer, he chose to give up on this question, and asked another. "_How do you l-live for sso long? V-Why hass nobody heard of j-you for sso long?_"

-_Does Severus suspect me of using some stupid methods such as horcrux to achieve longevity? Yeah, and Godric and I started the rumor. Does he blame his own possible misfortune on me? Perhaps this one isn't as sharp as Lucius, because Lucius didn't ask - nah, Lucius was too afraid of his own neck back then, yet Severus is quite sure he will be returned to that bathroom in the future. And after all, nobody has ever mimicked Lord Slytherin's wise move in more than nine hundred years._

With a hint of gloat, Salazar answered his descendant's question: "_The Mirror._"

Severus the Stutterer opened his mouth, then looked as if he wanted to hit himself with a hammer. Slowly, and some cloud of renewed suspicion rose up in his black eyes. "_V-Would you help uss in our ka...current tassk v-with the Mirror?_"

-_Oh, well, Severus probably has correctly deduced that I am inclined to help him locking up all Tom Riddles. For the sake of Atlantis, I can hardly decide which kind of showing-off is more annoying: the Malfoys' extravagance, or Severus' cleverness! Yet, Godric had often accused me of gloating…_

Salazar struggled between the roles of an annoyed lord and a doting grandfather, and silently admitted to himself that his judgement might have been compromised by the softness in his old age. With a note that he needed to regain his youth sooner, Salazar hissed: "_If you cooperate with me, I shall leave you hintss on that ssubject ass well._"

Severus' eyes flickered, and then promised: "_I v-will co-cooperate, but I le-retain right to sstop, in casse I ssee danger of v-world de-desstruction in d-doing sso. I v-will tell you the rea...reason if I can._"

That sounded reasonable to Lord Slytherin. The old lord hissed: "_You can only hide information from me under the circumsstance that by telling me sso, the very act may endanger the world. If you accept, then deal. _"

Severus considered, and hissed. "_Deal._"

Note: In canon, Dumbledore could speak more than a hundred languages, and Crouch, Sr. could speak more than two hundred. This certainly makes a lot of sense in a world with the Interdict of Merlin where one of the greatest sources of power is to read ancient text and to guess the secrets buried behind. However, if anyone who is serious to gain power has to learn that many languages, a great many powerful lords might be intellectually exhausted afterwards, and have no energy to think about something such as "magical Enlightenment". Think about Harry, if he were to be brought up by a distinguished magical scholar, then probably he has to learn Old English, Old French, Latin and Greek as a start, and Hebrew and Runes as a first-step supplement, with Hieroglyph and Arabic in the waiting, etc. By the end of the day, I wonder if Harry would ever have the time or mental capacity to read any scientific literature even when they are put in front of him.


	33. Chapter 33 Classes, Part I, Food Safety

All my thanks to Kuilin, my dear beta.

RIP, Alan Rickman. I hope someone has made a Version 3.0 Horcrux for you, so that we can still hear your unmistakable voices and watch your excellent performances after we figure out how to make a Stone.

* * *

Chapter 33.

Classes, Part I, Food Safety

11:59 am, July 7th, 1993

"Time is up, turn in your papers now." Severus knocked on the blackboard in the small classroom, and waved his wand.

Harry raised his head as his quiz drifted toward the ex-Potions master, looked around, finding both Draco and Hermione were looking nervously at Severus. While Severus started flipping through their quizes, and marking things down quickly, Harry had a surreal feeling about his life in general.

After several days of intensive saving-the-world activities and setting up the Mirror so that it would lock up all the Tom Riddles upon command or the lack of certain commands, the Boy-Who-Lived, the Girl-Who-Revived and, in Mad-Eye's words - the "Malfoy brat who should never be here", were back as students again. From Harry's own life experience, maybe the cartoonists weren't completely making things up when they depicted student superheroes who had to save the world on a regular basis and to worry about their homework at the same time.

-_At least I don't have to hide the fact that I am the superhero from everyone, and the important people around me understand that. _

Harry moved his eyes away from the ex-Potions master, and pondered again on the dilemma that he had been circling at the back of his mind since he was in the dark mode four days ago: _should I let Severus revive the real Quirrell? Quirrell might have some information on the whereabouts of Voldemort, not to mention some of his secret powers. The real danger of this matter is that if we choose to do so, we need to keep this thing in complete secrecy. Mad-Eye had offered one of his fake identities to me when he thought that I needed the identity myself, the identity was "somewhat plausible" by Mad-Eye's standards, and he had gone to double check it today. Yesterday, Severus - who no longer remembered it now - had said that he could construct a new revival altar in about two weeks, if he could use the Stone to duplicate some of the leftover magical materials at hand, and his altar in the United States is still usable. Therefore, maybe it is time that I talk to Hermione about this, and ask for her opinion. Well, for potential political implications, I need to talk to Draco as well, and maybe obliviate him later._

Before Harry had weighed out the benefits and shortcomings of a new altar in Britain at some location that Mad-Eye deemed "having some semblance of safety" versus the one in Nevada, Severus had finished grading their quizes and handing back them to the three students. Harry got a ninety-four out of one hundred, and some quick glances told Harry that Hermione got one hundred points while Draco got ninety-one. Harry looked at his paper again, and found that he misspelt the name of a commonly used food poison, and he had omitted a step in the making of the animagus meditation potion, which could render the drinker having a much harder time - or maybe never - in turning back to human form, and Severus had commented that Harry had "an excellent killer's instinct even in mistakes".

The lunch time also turned out to be a quiz time, simply because one of that day's subjects had been various ways that your enemy might sabotage you by food and drinks.

That morning, Minerva first had given a lecture on the theory of animagus transformation, which Harry had already learned by heart.

Then, Mad-Eye had given a two-hour lecture about charms and transfigurations that could be used on the things that went into your stomach, which only covered "the bare minimum of what a stupid criminal would use". As it turned out, Harry's ideas about putting transfigured sulfuric acid into the enemy's teacup wasn't that unique - the story of the criminal who transfigured gold into wine was covered during the very first transfiguration lecture after all. While talking about transfiguration, Mad-Eye had sneered, "Every so often, there is some chap who thinks that he is the only who listened in the first transfiguration class, and comes up with some fancy stuff to transfigure, puff."

Therefore, when house-elves brought them three large trays of food, the real quiz started.

With a hint of smirk, Severus said: "Label all the items that you think are unfit for consumption and why. For the items that you can't name a reason for refusal within twenty minutes, you would later swallow them in front of everyone - rest assured, nothing lethal within fifteen minutes. _I sspoke truth, as Mr. Potter could w-verify._"

Severus looked at Harry pointedly, and Harry translated the last part Severus said to human language for his friends. Then, Severus conjured magical curtains to block the view so that none of the students could see or hear what others were doing, and a ticking countdown clock showed up in front of Harry - which Harry suspected was actually there to create pressure, instead of showing the time left.

Harry carefully applied an air-refreshing charm on himself, and began testing. He glanced at the delicious-looking steak, fried pork sirloin, stewed diricawl meat, vegetables, chocolate cake, apple pie and pumpkin juice among other items, and couldn't help but began to wonder if Severus and Mad-Eye wanted the three of them to ever enjoy meals again.

About a year ago, Mad-Eye had already given Harry a number of magical trinkets that could detect "certain standard methods only fools would use", and Severus had given them more magical items with similar purpose today. Harry first tested all the food with Mad-Eye's detectors, and no alarm was triggered.

-_Well, of course, Mad-Eye and Severus would be more creative than that._

Before Harry's hand touched the magical items Severus gave him today, he stopped, and realized that he should make sure those items actually performed their claimed functions, and didn't have any other functions added - such as being a secret portkey or something.

-_Or, maybe the touch of such an item with certain things in the food would have some interesting effects._

-_Oh, this is going to be interesting._

Nineteen minutes later, Harry was facing a glass of water and two slices of bread that he couldn't find any magical or non-magical reason to reject - he even measured the density of water, and found nothing irregular. Slytherin commented sarcastically: _Bread and water, how pristine! Should we ask for some salt?_

As the time on the countdown clock turned to zero, the magical curtains and the clocks disappeared.

From the smirk on Severus' face, Harry was pretty sure that at least one of them would show some very entertaining effects after consuming - Harry glanced at the chocolate eggplant in front of Hermione, and the glass of pumpkin juice in front of Draco.

Harry hoped that he wasn't going to be the clown within the next several minutes. A corner at the back of Harry's mind secretly commented: _Look at the smirk on your servant's face. I wonder if he were to serve -_

Harry told that corner of himself to shut up, and picked up the glass when Severus looked at him first. With some determination, Harry allowed a small amount of water to enter his mouth, and he immediately spat out the bitter-tasting liquid.

Before asking what was in that liquid or calling for help, Harry pointed his wand to his mouth, and mumbled, "Aguamenti." As Harry began to wash his mouth to get rid of any residue liquid, the bitterness turned into sweetness - something too sweet. Then Harry realized: this was some type of artificial sweetener, which was bitter when the concentration was too high, and sweet when the concentration was right in range.

And Severus' slightly amused voice confirmed Harry's guess: "And that is the effect of saccharin," Severus glanced at Draco, and explained, "which is a food additive that Muggles use to create sweet taste without adding sugar, but it can taste bitter if the concentration is too high. Saccharin isn't really toxic, so standard spells wouldn't give you any alarm. And Mr. Potter, as for your information, some calorie-counting Muggleborn witch has recently invented a spell that can test whether some food can be considered 'healthy' per Muggle nutritional standards."

When Harry finished washing his mouth, he saw that Hermione was giving suspicious and reluctant looks at her chocolate eggplant. Then, Hermione bravely took a bite with extraordinary grace, and spat it out immediately.

When Hermione was washing her mouth and throwing diagnostic spells on herself, Severus explained with a smirk, "Nothing irregular or harmful, just our famous British cook." Then, the ex-Potion's Master's face turned stern, "However, the reason that Miss Granger didn't find out the unpleasant smell of this dish was the chocolate cake, which is now labeled 'love potion in it'. The actual irregular ingredient in that cake is named 'fairflair', a common ingredient in the magical perfume industry."

Hermione looked as if she wanted to hit her own head with a hammer, while Harry vaguely remembered reading about that potion ingredient somewhere.

Severus continued to explain. "Fairflair can create an illusion of smell that is both expected and desired by anyone. It bears resemblance to the effect of love potion in this sense, and it is used in some variations of love potion. Fairflair is not poisonous by itself, however, we have just observed how it could trick one's mind and mask any undesirable smells from the items nearby. Miss Granger, _I_, in particular, understand your disdain for vanity, and _Witch Weekly_ \- I have seen your face when I mentioned where to find the previous spell - yet, certain knowledge in the fashion business may prove very helpful. - And ah, Mr. Malfoy, be careful of what interesting effects you may experience when your beautification products are mixed with some other innocuous items. I would give all of you a list concerning this subject later."

As Severus was staring down at Draco, the blond boy gingerly picked up his pumpkin juice, took a small sip, carefully swallowed it down, and suddenly began to throw up.

Harry saw some small black moving dots in Draco's vomit, which might be some sort of small insects.

Severus' words weren't that reassuring this time. "Mr. Moody claimed that he doesn't know how to raise 'Gu', or the insects some Asian wizards use to control others' mind. He also claimed that he only knew how to wrap sleeping insects up with alkali, which would only dissolve upon the contact with acid in one's stomach, therefore releasing the insects; and of course, how to wake up the insects once in contact with acid. Since I have no way to verify his words, I have personally collected the non-magical insects from a random farm in France this morning, and made him taught me how to wrap them up. However, I wouldn't put it pass Mr. Moody to have spread cultivated insects all over the world, or he might have taught me some wrong methods."

Harry watched as Draco's face turning whiter by each sentence. Actually, Harry himself wouldn't put it pass Mad-Eye to have passed up on such an excellent opportunity to control a Malfoy.

-_Err, Severus wouldn't really give Mad-Eye the chance to sabotage his godson, would he? However, I do have to ask Mad-Eye what he did, just in case._

"To counter this problem and some other similar problems, there are some universal solutions." Severus gave Hermione a glance, and continued. "However, those would all require the use of the Stone."

And Harry got it: _we would also need a number of trolls, actually. Hmm, Severus is trying to use this opportunity to give Draco more protection. What a sneaky greasy bat._

Severus continued."There is a temporary solution that I have practised extensively recently, which is to transfigure your body into its perfect status, and then we can use the Stone to fix it."

-_Oh, wait, Severus doesn't want to use the untested troll solution, just in case that has some side-effects. He is quite careful with things related to Draco. Well, on the other hand, Severus might want me to consider how to give more protection to people around me._

Harry began to contemplate whether he should give the power of trolls to Draco, Severus, Mad-Eye, Minerva, and even Mom. However, Dad probably can't survive…

Severus gave Harry and his bread a pointed look.

-_Oh, well._

Harry accepted his fate, and ate a tiny bite of the bread, which turned out to be -

-_Well, here is the salt we have asked for. _


	34. Chapter 34 Classes, Part II, AI

I would like to thank my dear beta, Kuilin.

* * *

Chapter 34.

Classes, Part II, Artificial Intelligence

12:40 pm, July 3rd, 1993

When Severus took Draco to the Hospital to be treated by the Stone, Harry and Hermione were finally provided with real food this time. Although the food on the table looked and smelt delicious, neither of them was in any mood for food. After all, this could be part of the test as well.

While Harry was doing the tests he did during the exam and what Hermione had suggested, Hermione flipped through the past year's _Witch Weekly_ the house-elves just brought here. She suddenly giggled, "Harry, does Draco really read _Witch Weekly_? And that's why he didn't have to taste stuff with strange flavors. I mean, it's just so -"

At this point, Harry was actually pondering another subject: _Severus didn't slip anything really dangerous that he didn't expect us to detect into Hermione's or my food. Maybe he was afraid that if he did, the world might be in danger. However, Severus did need to teach us a lesson with something really dangerous, and Mad-Eye might have guessed the same. Poor Draco. I really need to ask Mad-Eye._

Just to keep the conversation flowing, Harry briefly thought of the Malfoys' perfect robes, well-manicured hands, and meticulous hair, and suggested, "Malfoy?"

Before Hermione could reply, the fireplace lit up. Draco walked out of the green flames, followed by Severus.

The blond boy raised one of his eyebrow, and intentionally drawled in his voice. "Am I correct in the understanding that the name of a Noble and Most Ancient House has just become a subject of a joke?"

Harry knew Draco meant this to be a joke, but the boy had put too much force into it, just as things had been since Lucius was back in the temporary holding cell in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Harry had to explain, "Draco, we have just said that you must have known the healthy food spell already."

"Oh, well." The boy replied, and his eyes might have avoided Hermione's direction for an instant, but Draco quickly controlled himself.

Harry didn't want to guess all the time, so he just asked. "Draco, what is it? I mean, if you could say it openly."

Draco became a bit awkward, hesitated, and said: "For the items that I didn't find anything wrong, I employed a food testing method used by old families." Draco cleared his voice. "You may know this common practice without me, and I guess you need to know this tradition as well. I asked my personal house-elf to taste them."

The Girl-Who-Revived looked at Draco in disbelief and horror.

And Harry, well, Harry could sort of understand why Draco and a lot of purebloods would do that, but still -

-_I do have a long way to go with Draco._

The black haired man spoke then. "And Mr. Malfoy, I think you might have learned your lesson that why certain old methods may fail you. The digestion system in house-elves was particularly designed to be able to handle unhealthy food, such as those infested with worms. As for potentially mind controlling insects, I suppose they are designed to control human beings, not house-elves, therefore your house-elf may digest them just as any other types of worms."

Severus' eyes turned to Harry and Hermione. "And Miss Granger, Mr. Potter, in all fairness for your moral concerns, from what I have gathered from books and experience, one of the designed functions of house-elves is to test for food poison, so they can survive most poisons, including some poisons potent enough to kill the strongest wizards; they would throw up instantly upon the ingestion of transfigured food; and they are also crafted to be physically strong, to heal fast, to be resistant to sudden changes in temperature - you can hardly imagine how many criminals had tried to tamper with the temperature affecting charms on food such as ice cream, so that they could freeze up your entire body, instead of just the ice cream. That's one of the reasons why each member of the old pureblood families has a personal house-elf, that is, if the family can afford it."

-_Sapient beings, designed and made to be absolutely loyal to their masters, to do house works, to test for poison, and possibly carry out other dangerous tasks._

Harry felt a wave of nausea. He needed to optimize the world sooner.

Then, Ravenclaw raised a point: _haven't you just heard? That is the creation of sapient beings with specific purposes! Of course, we wouldn't do anything of that sort to our creations, but..._

Amidst Hufflepuff's protest and Gryffindor's righteous fury, Slytherin suggested: _we can put our judgements to a later point. Just think of how much the world would benefit if we can construct our own artificial intelligence one day earlier. Remember why our research was always stalled during the past year? It was because Hermione and we didn't have enough time to carry out the experiments we designed, while we could hardly trust anyone else with those potentially dangerous knowledge. If we were to know how to make a house-elf, we might be able to create research assistants to carry out some routine research tasks, and those research assistants can be designed to be completely incapable to leak what their research projects without our approval. Really, just think of the thousands of Muggles who die every day, because we couldn't risk to let them know about magic, and because the healing power of the Stone is limited. If we can make medical nanorobots available to Muggles one day earlier, even without the Stone, we can still save the lives of thousands of Muggles. Shut up and do multiply. _

This argument quieted Hufflepuff and Gryffindor considerably.

"Professor Snape, you said that the house-elves are made. My readings gave me some contradictory indications on that subject, some say they were originally made by powerful wizards, though most current house-elves are descendants of the original ones; some say house-elves are a specie exist naturally. Do you know how to do that? Or do you know anyone who has done that?" Trying to ignore Hermione's intake of breath and angry stare, Harry asked.

"I do not know how to create a house-elf myself, neither do I know any current wizards who can create a house-elf, or at least, nobody has created one for public sale as I have heard," Severus replied, "but there are records stating that ancient powerful wizards could. A certain portrait in a deserted part of the dungeon claimed that most house-elves in Hogwarts were crafted by Lord Salazar Slytherin. However, talking portraits were only invented at least three hundred years after Lord Slytherin's supposed death or disappearance, therefore that claim may or may not be true."

-_Of course, Salazar wouldn't even consider the moral implications of conjuring sapient artificial intelligence, just as he probably never did with the capability of creating sapient snakes with Parseltongue. Oh wait, the snakes are loyal to Parselmouths in pretty much the same way as the house-elves to their masters. Perhaps Salazar did get some of his ideas on Parseltongue from creating house-elves._

Draco added: "I have asked about house-elves since - well, you know, that hypothesis. Harry, I know you don't believe in souls, but from some portraits in Malfoy Manor and my relative's houses, it is claimed that the elves don't have souls, since they were initially made by powerful wizards. Moreover, it seems that at old times, really powerful lords would conjure a number of house-elves as wedding gifts to their children, as a means to exhibit their magical strength. Therefore, it is possible that Lord Slytherin knew how to conjure one, and the Hogwarts Four should all be capable of that. However, in the recent two hundred years, at least in Great Britain, no wizard who wields extraordinary power has had any child - which is pretty odd by itself - so we actually don't know."

Harry knew what "that hypothesis" meant: Harry's previous suggestion that house-elves were stealing magic from wizarding kind, which was meant to be a joke. It felt both odd and satisfactory at some dark corners of Harry's mind: _you see, that's why people become dark lords, that even your jokes would be treated seriously._

While Hufflepuff and Gryffindor were busy shouting Dark Lord Harry down, Draco continued his analysis: "Well, as for Dumbledore, Grindelwald, and the Dark Lord, we probably know why they didn't have any children. I just sometimes wonder why the Flamels never had any kids - the Stone could fix almost any disease, they seemed to care about others, and they were not homosexual as Dumbledore and Grindelwald are, or were they?"

Harry almost choked upon Draco's excellent intuition, but he managed to show nothing on his face, and this effort was partially helped by the fact that Slytherin were trying to slip themselves a note on the previous subject: _house-elf-making is another piece of valuable information that we need to extract from Voldemort's mind, or his pet snake's mind, somehow. Otherwise, check if Perenelle had taught that to Dumbledore, after we retrieve him from Time. The knowledge on how to create artificial intelligence, which apparently operates intelligently while obeying predetermined rules (which can be modified to Asimov's Laws of Robotics), is highly valuable. Ah, on that thought, the Sorting Hat is also an artificial intelligence that can be sapient, if someone asks it the right question. And wow, neither the house-elves nor the Sorting Hat has destroyed the Universe by making too many copies of paperclips during the past one thousand years… _

Harry wanted to ask for more details, but found himself literally incapable of opening his mouth, once the thought of how an artificial intelligence designed to maximize paperclip production could lead to the destruction of the world reference came up.

And as Harry pondered more on his previous thoughts, the mass production of medical nanorobots began to sound dangerous as well. Harry could easily see how some evil wizards, or good idiots for that matter, might tune the nanorobots just a little, and cause disastrous results.

-_For example, if your nanorobots can find and kill all cancer cells in one's body, kill everyone on earth with or without a specific gene should be easily doable as well. _

Hermione, who was briefly glad that Harry had shut up for once, felt something wrong and ask, "Harry, is there something wrong?"

Severus tensed up a little bit, and his eyes became empty black tunnels.

Draco stopped his analysis on the Flamels. Face turning white, the blond boy hesitated, and carefully asked, "Should Severus and I excuse ourselves?"

Harry hesitated. He surely didn't want Draco to think that the dead Flamels might destroy the world, nor did he want the new Lord Malfoy to become a House-Elf Eater of sorts, but one could never overemphasize the potential danger of artificial intelligence - which wizarding kind had been blindly generating during the past several thousand years.

Harry took in a deep breath, and said, "I will talk with Hermione first, and you two later."

As Draco and his new godfather turned to leave, Harry made a mental note to himself: _Severus seems to be struggling to solve some mystery. Has he read some riddles concerning the creation of house-elves somewhere? Although Severus isn't that good at solving riddles, he certainly knows a number of them. Geez, this man didn't even realize that a riddle hidden in an ancient scroll was actually about the Mirror, instead of some obscure potion, until we worked on the Mirror project for two days. I really need to talk to him later, and teach him something about scientific method._

_-By the way, what a delightful day for the entire world! We are so near the point where we actually figure out another way to destroy the world; or if we have managed to ask Severus what the house-elf-making riddle is, we may actually possess another weapon in our "how-to-destroy-the-world" list._

Note:

The paperclip reference can be found here:  2014/08/17/our_weird_robot_apocalypse_why_the_rise_of_the_machines_could_be_very_strange/


	35. Chapter 35 Return of Salazar Slytherin

I would like to thank Kuilin, my beta.

* * *

Chapter 35.

The True Return of Lord Salazar Slytherin

4:29 pm, July 14th, 1993

While packing his things for his upcoming trip for Ukraine the next morning in his suitcase-bedroom, a sudden sense of approaching danger prompted Severus to reach for his wand, and to activate the defensive magical items on himself. However, before Severus' bright blue Protego Vitamaxima shield was properly raised, a red bolt of light shattered the forming blue hemisphere and hit Severus.

"Better, but not enough." A comment came from an invisible old man.

With a wave of daze associated with memory charms, Severus began to recognize the speaker, for the eleventh time. The dark-haired wizard swayed a little bit, grunted inside, and remembered where he was planning to go this very afternoon: South Africa.

-_Because even Lord Salazar Slytherin found it was almost impossible to sneak into the Room of Requirement and use the Stone without anyone knowing. Hooray, Mad-Eye!_

"Am I passable for the role?" Salazar revealed himself in front of Severus, and asked.

Severus noticed that Salazar even managed to slip some Afrikaans accent into his South African English, and was secretly astonished by the ancient lord for his amazing speed at learning new languages.

-_At the age of one hundred and fifty, yet he learned the simple verbal parts of a new language within two to three weeks! Well, perhaps this isn't particularly surprising for someone like Salazar Slytherin, or Albus Dumbledore. Those lords all master hundreds of languages. I have such a long way to go._

The linguistic question aside, Severus examined his ancient ancestor's appearance closely, and determined that Salazar's clothes tonight was passable for a dejected fifty-something South Africa wizard clinging desperately on old glories: outdated wizarding robes that were a bit too tight, made with fine material, yet the elegance of the robes was marred by signs of wear and tear; dragon-hide boots that had been fashionable some twenty years ago, now spotted with slouchy attempts to magically repair the patches of ruptured leather; an ancient-looking snake shaped brooch that was carefully cleaned, which could easily be considered as a family heirloom.

Severus silently commented: _nowadays,_ _what kind of wizard wears brooch besides one Lucius Malfoy? But this suits the snobbish character Salazar is going to play quite well. By the way, certain characteristics of Salazar suits his role quite well, too._

Severus hissed, "_Yess._"

Salazar nodded, grabbed Severus, applied concealing charms on both of them, and activated a portkey that could only be made by someone with higher security clearance level than the current headmistress.

A portkey and several Apparitions later, Severus and Salazar landed at the supposed residence of one Claudius Gamp, a laughingstock in the South African wizarding society after Severus sabotaged his final grand show in his haughty and pathetic life.

Around this time of 1992, the Ministry of Magic of South Africa welcomed its first black minister, plus eleven more black high-rank officials. A number of white wizards were quite unhappy about this change in the predominately white ministry, and about similar changes that was taking place in the Muggle side of the country. Amongst the racist wizards was one Claudius Gamp. Although the Gamp family began to go downhill over thirty years ago, the last Scion of the Gamp House still reasoned that his failure was entirely due to the rise of black wizards. After imbibing too much alcohol into his system in a bar with a dozen or so other white supremacists, Claudius announced to the cheering crowd that he would sacrifice his life in a ritual to bring South Africa back to its course. When Claudius staggered out of the bar, Severus secretly followed him, interrupted the sacrificial ritual which, according to Severus' estimation, would only blow up the Gamp House and things within a mile. Besides saving possibly several hundred Muggles in the nearby village, Severus mercifully helped Claudius to think that he had accomplished his plan, while he actually only managed to achieve part of it - which was, of course, the suicide part.

On the third day, Claudius returned to that bar in the form of a brown pebble in Severus' box, while polyjuiced Severus was mocked by Claudius' obnoxious friends, who were too cowardice to actually do anything themselves, yet felt perfectly entitled to jeer the one who had claimed to do something.

-_Maybe they are just in need of a dark lord with passable motivation skills to actually start something. _

Severus made a sarcastic mental note to himself, and staged a spectacular fist fight with Claudius' friends for being insulted. After Severus landed several of the highly incompetent wizards into Cape Town Magical Hospital for bruises, Severus successfully made sure that the poor brown pebble in his box lost his remaining social ties.

Nowadays, Severus just needed to occasionally sell some of Claudius' old clothes and family collections, and to place some large owl orders of Firewhiskey afterwards to make this identity alive in the eyes of the magical world.

Needless to say, it took Severus quite some efforts to find and obtain this convincing false identity, yet the powerful magic that Salazar already gave him hints on really paid off for Severus' best cover. Moreover, if it were not for the ancient-looking scrolls fabricated by the authentic medieval wizard, and the hints he left in Severus' mind, Severus and Mad-Eye might still be busy trying various wild ideas proposed by the Boy-Who-Lived in front of the Mirror this very day.

Severus did hold some small grudges toward Salazar over one of his hints. Severus knew that Salazar only left him the idea that he should try to probe the procedures of people being transported to the Hospital. Salazar had never indicated in any way or form that Severus should endanger Draco in doing so. However, Severus still ended up giving Mad-Eye a chance to do things to Draco. Severus knew the young Malfoy brat needed to encounter some real danger to get rid of his illusion and contempt of false safety created by pureblood security protocols, yet Severus should use one of his own "kill-a-pureblood-creatively" methods, instead of handing Mad-Eye the opportunity that the old Auror had definitely yearned for in the past one hundred years. Severus knew it was unfair to blame Salazar for the affair, which only proved what a horrible godfather Severus was, yet Severus couldn't help.

In front of his clear failure as a godfather, Severus didn't want to put too much emphasis on the bit of success he had. Severus managed to slip a note to his subconscious thoughts before Salazar temporarily blocked his memory by the end of their second meeting, in which he told himself that he needed to teach Draco how to become an animagus very quickly.

A few days later, although several hundred pieces of undisclosed gold donated to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement ensured that Draco would never be charged for the offense, the new Lord Malfoy had become a criminal in the eyes of magical Britain, for the offense of being an illegal animagus.

Severus amused himself each time he thought of his godson's animagus form: _one can hardly believe how attached that boy is to his snake-ish Father - the boy with a name of dragon and wyvern symbols on his pajamas became a snakedragon, a hybrid between a wyvern and a snake! And the endless not-so-subtle gloats from Lucius, simply unbearable! I wonder, if I should thank Merlin that Draco's animagus form doesn't have blue stripes. True, this rare form of animagus did solve the problem of Parseltongue, snakedragon hide and scales are resistant to a lot of curses, its fangs contain deadly poisons similar to that of basilisks, the body is resistant to most poisons and infections, and it can fly pretty fast, yet the twenty-foot long creature with shining light-gold colored scales is hardly any form of hiding._

-_Hopeless Malfoy show-offs!_

Moreover, Severus could hardly suppress his smile each time he thought of the snakedragon's funny Parseltongue accent due to his dragon part, where a "_yesss_" would become a "_yesshh_", and "_ssit_" would turn into "_sshhit_".

It seemed that Salazar had not realized that neither the Malfoys nor Severus were natural Parselmouths, and Severus didn't plan to do anything that might lessen Lord Slytherin's grandfatherly thoughts on the younger Malfoy – after Salazar learned that Draco couldn't even master ancient Greek, the old lord blamed Lucius for Draco's poor accent and substandard linguistic education in general, and he had planned to teach Draco himself when he had time, which worked exactly according to Severus' plan. And for some strange reason that Severus didn't really want to ponder upon, after discovering that Severus was not a stutter in modern English, Salazar also blamed Lucius for not providing Severus proper private linguistic education, and began to teach Severus the correct ways to move his tongues and vocal cords in Parseltongue.

Severus was sure poor old Lucius would understand. To be honest, the imaginary scene of a teeth-gritting Lucius reluctantly thanking the unkempt half-blood for getting his son a great tutor offered Severus endless entertainment.

Entertainment and annoyance that were commonly associated with the Malfoys aside, Severus knew the advantages he gained from Salazar all required payment. And if Severus wanted Salazar to continue his grandfatherly feelings towards Draco, Severus probably needed to pay for Draco's share as well, in which providing Salazar with a proper false identity was the least he could do.

For their plan to work, Salazar needed more than a false identity, proper garments and phrasing in commonly used sentences. Salazar needed to be able to act the role of an obnoxious twentieth century wizard, and that had proved to be the difficult part.

The wizarding world had moved slower than the Muggle world during the past several hundred years, however, there was still no way that Severus and Plumpton's portrait could teach Salazar everything about the twentieth century within a few days. Severus could make sure that Salazar wasn't too surprised when he encountered a wizarding radio or a magical moving photo, and the ancient lord was quick in picking up the proper use of current dining utensils, yet it was impossible for Severus to introduce something such as toilet tissues that was so common for him that he didn't even consider the need for explanation.

"This rolled parchment is so soft and þynne. What skin is it made from? Why do you put such things in the toilet?" Salazar had once asked.

Then Severus began to explain that "þynne" was pronounced as "thin" these days, and since current Muggles and wizards used chopped wood to make paper, paper became so cheap that people even used paper for bathroom needs.

"Interesting. I have heard -" Salazar paused, then hissed, "_what iss the current pronunciation for Chinesse?_"

Here was when Severus drew out a map and named every major country in the world to Salazar. Then one question led to another, and Severus ended up explaining the prominent wizarding schools founded after Salazar's time, drew out his collection of _Uagadou, A History,_ and showed Salazar the moving pictures of the headmaster and professors during Claudius' school years in Uagadou School of Magic.

"Oh, and the admission letters to the school are by a dream messenger. As far as I have heard, the dream messenger put a token into your hand while you were sleeping some night between your eleventh birthday and the start date of the school year." Severus showed Salazar the well-kept token he found at the Gamp House. "Moreover, both English and French were used as teaching languages in Uagadou, and blacks and whites were separated into different classes back when you were a student."

Severus twisted his lips in disapproval, and continued, "Culture wise, it is noteworthy that although we British abolished slavery almost two hundred years ago, and Shacklebolt is even considered as a Noble and Most Ancient House, it is not the case in every part of the world, especially, not in Africa. I suppose, the adoption of Muggle racism among the white wizards migrating to Africa was somewhat understandable, because they needed some kind of moral justifications for colonialism, and few people wanted to consider themselves as the bad guys. Going back to your education, since you were educated in the White-English House, in which the majority of your classmates were white, - except one Japanese and two Indians, who were honorary whites, - the majority of your supposedly classmates were descendants of British colonists. The majority of them were only racist, not blood purists; since you were both a racist and a blood purist, and never hesitated before voicing your viewpoints, you were not that popular at school. Here is Claudius' school yearbook - lucky that they have these in Uagadou, otherwise, it's hard to find the names and faces. Oh, and this girl, Claudius still kept some love letters from her, let me get the letter..."

It took Severus four five-hour time-turned sessions to cover the basics that Salazar might encounter en route to the Hospital as Claudius Gamp.

Then, the two ex-Heads of Slytherin House spent quite some time in and around Cape Town Magical Hospital to observe how patients were diagnosed and transported to the only real Hospital in the world. Things there appeared to be quite similar to what Severus observed one year ago: the hostility between whites and blacks, and the rift between wizards of British descendance and that of Dutch descendance, had made South African wizarding society extremely convenient for outside wizards with unspeakable motives. The safety rules were intentionally badly made, and even more poorly observed; communication between different departments in the hospital and the ministry was somewhere between highly ineffective and nonexistence; English-speaking wizards and Afrikaans-speaking wizards stabbed each other's back even if the very act might result in their own injuries as well; white officials who thought they were soon to be replaced by blacks could be easily bought, while the newly elected black officials didn't hold any better ethics than their white colleagues.

Two five-hour sessions later, Lord Slytherin announced his conclusion: "A nation so divided can easily be conquered, even by you, Severus."

Severus wasn't so sure this was meant to be a compliment. However, there was something quite worrisome that he needed to tell Salazar: "_Be warned, Muggless in thiss nation have masss-ssacrifice v-weaponss, ass you call them._"

"_What?!_" The aged lord hissed in utter disbelief. "_If the Muggless run their government like thiss, we sshall all be desstroyed by the weaponss!_"

Severus then explained a piece of good news: "Other Muggle nations, such as the United States and Russia, are doing one good thing: they are pressuring South Africa to give up their nuclear weapons. From what I recently read, the South Africans are cooperating, or at least, they seem so."

"We should make them so. From what we know, the wizards protecting the Muggle officials should be easily bought or deceived." Lord Slytherin decided. "Is there any other Muggle nation that can be easily disarmed?"

Severus smiled a sly smile: "Ukraine, and some other former Soviet states."

Salazar raised one eyebrow, and smirked, "_Sseveruss, you are truly my desscendant._"

Hence, Severus gained himself a very powerful ally for his trip to the former Soviet states, that was, of course, if their plan for today would be successful.

Severus eyed his ancient ancestor, and nervously watched as the aged lord downed several bottles of age-reducing potion that made him look as if he was in his early thirties. Although the age-reducing potion couldn't really put youth back to organs and joints that had deteriorated over time, it could safely change one's appearances. And since this was one of the most commonly used potions among the idiots who transfigured themselves, it was OK for Salazar to have some as well.

In the second step, the original Lord Salazar Slytherin needed to look like a stupid wizard who wanted his looks to resemble Salazar Slytherin. Since polyjuice potion would definitely be one of the first things Mad-Eye might check for in the Hospital, the two ex-Heads of Slytherin House didn't plan to use polyjuice potion to make Salazar resemble Claudius. Instead, they used non-free human transfiguration, and they needed to intentionally make the work sloppy, such as changing Salazar's hair color to somewhere between brown and black, his face unevenly pointed, and several scars and moles on the original Claudius' body badly masked. With the combined efforts of Salazar and Severus, this was easily done.

Third, since neither Salazar nor Severus trusted the healers in the emergency room in Cape Town Magical Hospital, they agreed that free transfigurations on the vital organs and joints should be only conducted by themselves. After practicing free human transfiguration extensively on Lucius, Severus was relatively good at this. Unfortunately, they needed to make the work sloppy in the eyes of the inexperienced. Therefore, during their previous five-hour session, Severus taught everything he knew about free human transfiguration to Salazar, and left the practice to be "sloppy" part to the aged lord. For what was worse, since they couldn't appear to be too powerful, the time span that the free transfigurations could sustain was limited to one and a half hours.

Severus glanced at his mechanical watch, which showed "4: 58", and nodded to Salazar. The two ex-Heads of Slytherin House quickly started their free transfigurations, with Severus doing the first round of transfiguration, while Salazar checking Severus' work, and making modifications.

About fifteen minutes later, they were ready to move to the Cape Town Magical Hospital.

Severus disillusioned himself, pulled on Salazar's invisibility cloak, applied several one-sided sound and smell concealing charms, then Apparated to Cape Town Magical Hospital, where Salazar would separately Apparate to.

In front of the hospital's recipient desk, Salazar proudly announced to the waiting crowd in lines: "Today, the world will witness the return of Lord Salazar Slytherin, the greatest wizard after Merlin."

Everyone looked at Salazar as if he was mad.

Then, Salazar waved a page he teared from _Hogwarts, A History_, which showed the sculpture of Salazar Slytherin in the Slytherin dungeons. "Don't I look exactly like the great wizard?"

The crowd sniggered, and started not-exactly whispering to each other.

"Another standard idiot."

"Oh, Merlin, is this what we get after they announced that nobody can look exactly as any other living person? So they choose the dead ones?"

"Yeah, I heard quite some witches wanted to look like some woman named Marilyn Monroe - is the original Ms. Monroe a member of the House of Monroe?"

"Mom, look at his hair. Is Salazar Slytherin's hair half black, half brown?"

"Ah, this one is entertaining, at least."

The receptionist rolled her eyes, and asked, "What is your name, sir?"

"Salazar Slytherin." The ancient lord told the truth that nobody believed.

"What is your legal name, and how long will your transfiguration last, sir?" The receptionist couldn't help but rolled her eyes again.

Salazar answered: "Well, you can temporarily call me Claudius Gamp," and he quickly added, "I would soon change the names on all the papers to Salazar Slytherin. And, a great wizard such as I can make my free transfiguration last longer than any other living wizard in the world! "

The receptionist noted down "Claudius Gamp" on the register book, and signaled for the emergency room. This surely wasn't the first self-transfigured idiot she had seen, and the transfiguration skills of those dimwits usually didn't last long.

A few minutes later, Salazar was rushed into the emergency room, and the chuckling healers there began to apply free transfiguration per Salazar's request.

"Here, my hair needs to be all black, and my skin should be fair." Salazar demanded. "Oh, and my face should be more pointed in my jaw."

In the whole while that Salazar pretended to be an idiot, Severus invisibly patched up all the imperfect transfigurations the healers didn't observe, or were too lazy to correct.

Fifteen minutes later, the head healer announced: "You are good to go, Mr., ha, Salazar Slytherin."

Salazar was then handed a portkey to Azkaban.

Severus observed that the healers didn't obtain any biological samples from Salazar, or any other patient sent to Azkaban. Since the _International Regulations Against Abuse of Healing Powers_ was yet to pass, and this worked temporarily to Severus' advantage, Severus wasn't going to complain.

Severus knew that hair and blood would be collected by healers in Azkaban, and again by healers in Hogwarts. Severus had heard something about Muggle DNA identification technology. Moreover, even Severus knew a ton of evil things that you could do with willingly donated blood, not to mention Lord Salazar Slytherin. Therefore, both ex-Heads of Slytherin House had decided to go safe, and to only submit Claudius' samples to the people in the Hospital.

As Salazar swirled and disappeared, Severus could only hope that Salazar could really use his so-called magician's tricks to swap the samples from Salazar's own hair and blood to what they got from Claudius' body. Otherwise, well, they would have quite some busy work to do with the security system of the temporary storage room in Azkaban - if you were one of the Founders of Hogwarts, the security system in Hogwarts was relatively easy to tamper with, which Salazar had already done.

If what Severus and Salazar learned about the securities in Azkaban were right, everything on Salazar would be taken away, and he needed to change into something Muggles would recognize as restrictive clothing for the insane. Then, Salazar had to drink some sleeping potions, and would be hit several times with multiple versions of sleep and binding hexes. To counter this problem, Salazar showed Severus a Version 2.0 of the animagus transfiguration, where he could transfigure any part of his body into his animagus form. The digestive system of a basilisk could handle most potions like a breeze, and the scales of the monster snake were resistant to most hexes that were not intended to cause permanent harm. In case that the sleep hexes were to hit Salazar's head, the old lord would have to use pure magic to absorb the hexes, and made it seem like the hexes had been effective. Severus and Salazar had tried this part several times, and it proved that the all the sleep hexes the two ex-Heads of Slytherin knew could be absorbed by Salazar's magic alone. Since non wizard in Azkaban and in the Hospital was known to be much stronger than Severus - to be honest, there weren't that many in this fading age of magic in the whole world, - they were relatively safe in this regard.

Next, it would come to the question that whether Salazar's disguise would fool the diagnostic spells and artefacts used by wizards in Azkaban - they had tried the ones people used in the Room of Requirement, and the answer was yes. Severus had tried everything he knew, and everything Salazar taught him, including two spells that Severus could barely managed to cast, and the most likely result was there was nothing that couldn't be explained by "the standard idiot" statement.

Then, Salazar would be portkeyed to the Room of Requirement, checked, sampled, treated with the Stone, and sampled again.

If what Severus heard was right, anyone with malignant purposes to the Stone were to be found out at any point in Azkaban or Hogwarts, the standard protocol was to knock him or her down and arrest him immediately, and then use the Stone to fix the perpetrator in a greatly weaken state, such as a quadruple amputee without a tongue. Severus supposed that the last part was a rumor intentionally spread by Mad-Eye, for such treatment was clearly against the Boy-Who-Lived's moral standards.

Anyway, if Salazar's disguise was ever revealed, the ancient lord planned to escape with some Version 2.0 of conjured Floo fire - which the ancient lord chose not to explain it to Severus, nor had he revealed any other escape plans which he surely had. Salazar told Severus, he would then directly enter the Room of Requirement through some loophole the ancient lord would fix soon after, rob the Stone, and publicly announce his return. The only problem that Salazar saw with this alternative approach was that it might put Severus into a difficult position, while Severus had the bad feeling that the public announcement might somehow lead to a world-ending catastrophe.

Now, all Severus could do was to wait and pray in one of his secret fall-back locations in Florida. Severus dearly hoped that he wouldn't have to initiate the final back-up plan, which involved a lock of Salazar's hair, and a very special locket. Salazar claimed that he made the locket with the sacrifice of an enchanted hat, but his statement was made in English, instead of Parseltongue. Severus didn't have any immediate plan to figure out whether there was a person under the hat, for example, a certain Italian dark wizard named Giuliani. For this reason, although Salazar had said in Parseltongue that the "_bad luck for offspringss_" side effect was a rumor he himself made up, Severus wasn't that high on the promise the aged lord made that he would make Severus a really improved horcrux as reward.

As Severus was counting the seconds on his mechanical watch, when the watch said 6:14:05, a popping sound of a portkey announced the true return of Lord Salazar Slytherin.

Fifteen minutes later, or one hour and fourty-five minutes ago, in his suitcase-bedroom, Severus was packing his stuff for his upcoming trip for Ukraine the next morning. Somehow, he had a strange sense of true triumph, as if he had outsmarted Mad-Eye, or maybe someone or something even greater.

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Author's note:

Has anyone figured out what my Horcrux Version 3.0 requires?

As I was writing this chapter, I heard the sad news that Alan Rickman, the actor who played the role of Professor Severus Snape brilliantly, had passed away. RIP, Alan. I hope someone has made a Version 3.0 Horcrux for you, so that we can still hear your unmistakable voices and watch your excellent performances after we figure out how to make a Stone.


	36. Chapter 36 The Bicentennial House-elf

I would like to thank my beta, Kuilin.

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Chapter 36.

The Bicentennial House-elf

4:43 pm, July 14th, 1993

Severus silently recounted things that he might need for his upcoming trip to Ukraine, and wondered where his sense of having forgotten something had come from. The black-haired man shook his head, and determined that it might have been caused by the many memory charms that the Boy-Who-Lived demanded for his various secrets.

-In the name of Merlin, not even Albus was this secretive!

Severus sighed, and strode toward the fireplace in his temporary residency.

As Severus was working on the security charms on the fireplace, his temporary roommate, Auror Bahry, commented from behind Severus, "Malfoy's place again?"

"And your junior female colleagues rather miss Lady Malfoy's cookies, I gather?" Severus replied sarcastically.

The Auror who had served the Department of Magical Law Enforcement for one hundred and one years gave a grunt. "Give it a break, you git! The girls hadn't been eating much of anything ever since Mad-Eye caught a hold on them."

Severus smirked, threw a pinch of Floo powder into the flames, and said, "Hogwarts Fireplace 394, one-time passcode: 022146."

As the black-haired man swirled into the Floo network, he silently admitted to himself: crazy as some of the Boy-Who-Lived's ideas might be, this suggestion of his, that every fireplace should be assigned with a random number and set with a password, is indeed quite brilliant.

When Severus stepped out from the fireplace in his old office, his godson was already waiting for him. The blond boy seemed to be under more stress than usual today.

-Draco can't be worrying about me going to the former Soviet states, can he? If that is the case, well, it is both touching and… Merlin, the new Lord Malfoy shouldn't be so soft.

"Anything you want to talk about, Draco?" Severus omitted the courtesies and asked directly.

"Yes, Godfather." Draco seemed to be a bit uneasy, "Would you apply some privacy spells?"

Severus nodded, and started to apply his common set of protection and privacy spells in the office-turned-living room, while explaining each of them in details to the blond boy. "Revelio. This is a more general form of Homenum Revelio and Specialis Revelio. Homenum Revelio, as you can guess from the incantation, only reveals human beings. It has no effect toward magical creatures, ghosts, paintings, etc. As a matter of fact, it is generally a good idea to hide a miniaturized painting of someone you trust at some places where you expect to hear some interesting conversation."

Draco's eyes moved uneasily toward where a painting of a sleeping hermit had been in this office-turned-living room. The boy had surely guessed the portrait of the same person might be hided somewhere in the Slytherin Common Room.

The ex-Head of Slytherin continued as if he hadn't noticed Draco's expressions. "Specialis Revelio detects spying charms and hexes, yet it has an unusually high failure rate at your age. Revelio, on the other hand, although it might be quite taxing for you, has a much higher success rate, and it covers more area than any sub-charm of Revelio."

Severus stopped, trying hard to remember something, and then said, "And you should practise powerful magic as much as possible. According to … something I remembered from somewhere, practising powerful magic increases your total magic level. Charms such as Protego Vitamaxima would do. Oh, and you can try to learn some Muggle magicians' tricks, those might help with wand movements."

Severus swayed a bit as he said the last sentence, and he had no idea where the "magicians' tricks" part came from.

The blond boy looked at Severus, a bit worried, "Godfather, are you alright?"

Severus nodded, wanted to curse Mad-Eye, but checked his tongue in front of his possibly-too-soft godson. "I really need to be harsher on Mad-Eye when it is my turn to memory charm him. Now try Revelio."

As Severus corrected Draco's wand movements, he pondered Draco's previous question: thanks to Mad-Eye and the Boy-Who-Lived, I have so many mental lapses! In my current mental state, it would be dangerous for me to wander into unfamiliar territories. However, why do I have a false sense of security? Where does it come from? What the hell has Mad-Eye or the Boy-Who-Lived done to me? Did they do something similar to Draco as well?

About half an hour later, Severus finished his last privacy spell, and allowed the sweaty and tired blond boy to sit down.

Severus reached into his pouch, drew out a golden locket, and tossed it to Draco. "If you open the locket, and press the button inside, then for the next fifteen minutes, within a radius of about two meters, it would be equivalent to around two thirds of the sequence of spells I just showed you. It can only be used about ten times. Don't rely too much on it."

"Godfather, thank you so much." Draco examined the locket admiringly, "Godfather, did you make it yourself?"

Severus raised one eyebrow and smirked smugly - if there were some leisure time, he wouldn't mind going into details on how difficult it was to combine and store eighteen powerful charms into one locket, and how there were only a limited number of wizards in the world who could do it. However, there might be more pressing matters. "Draco, what was the matter that you wanted to discuss?"

Draco put the locket into his pouch, looked a bit uneasy, and said, "Godfather, I had wondered if you might need a house-elf."

Severus raised one eyebrow, and suggested: "I gather, the Boy-Who-Lived's comments on this subject changed your view?"

Severus clearly remembered the Potter boy's weird questions toward Draco and him concerning house-elves.

The Boy-Who-Lived had asked about whether the house-elves would hurt other wizards or themselves upon commands from their masters. The answer was obviously yes and yes. While Severus gave several examples where house-elves were used as killers, and Draco supplemented with information on how the old families usually blocked house-elves of other families from coming in, Harry Potter frowned in a way that strikingly resembled Albus Dumbledore.

Then, Harry Potter asked how the house-elves processed commands given by various beings. Draco answered that house-elves would obey their masters' orders first, then other family members', other peoples' when they were the masters' guests, for courtesy reasons. They didn't give a dime about what other non-human creatures requested them to do - though he admitted that house-elves might take orders from the paintings of deceased masters.

Harry Potter pondered on this, and asked a really odd question: "Do the house-elves always know themselves as house-elves, and define themselves as house-elves?"

Severus remembered that he and Draco had exchanged some worried glances, and Draco had hesitantly answered, "I suppose, yes? Dobby used to say, 'Dobby is such a bad elf', or something like that."

Then, there came the really worrying question: "Can the house-elves be ordered to harm human beings as a whole?"

Severus had responded, "Mr. Potter, I wonder if the house-elves are capable of understanding complex concepts such as 'human beings as a whole'. If the house-elves can foresee their actions might hurt their masters, they would not do so, however, their masters can explicitly demand them to. I have heard that a certain house-elf was forced by its master to assist in her suicide. The poor house-elf became mad and attempted to kill itself several times before our respectable Aurors could put it into Azkaban. Therefore, if someone commands his or her house-elf to conduct some act that might bring an end to this world, it probably would obey."

Finally, after discussing in secrecy with Granger again, the Boy-Who-Lived asked Severus if he could try to figure out how to make house-elves, and especially, how to alter the predetermined rules that these conjured creatures would follow.

During the past week, besides practising his bribery skills with the help of Lucius on officials in the German Ministry of Magic, and doing something that Severus couldn't remember now, he had spent almost all his spare time on this question.

-Too bad that I can't even share my progresses with my godson or Lucius.

The proud black-haired wizard regrettably thought.

Severus eyed his godson who was looking at him with worry and concern, and smiled reassuringly, "Draco, you don't need to give me a house-elf. Maybe, I would be able to conjure some for you later."

"Godfather, I know that we shouldn't rely too much on house-elves, but it is always good to have more security measures, isn't it?" Draco said, "If you would like to, I can temporarily transfer the ownership of any Malfoy elf - besides Dobby - to you."

Severus smelt something odd in Draco's words, and asked: "What about Dobby? Isn't it the house-elf that your Father used to bring everywhere? - If this concerns some privacy issues, you don't need to answer."

Draco's lips twisted, and his eyebrows frowned. "After Harry asked those weird questions, I observed the Malfoy elves more closely. And I found that all the elves were happy beyond themselves upon Father's return, except Dobby. It seemed that Dobby wasn't happy at all. I knew Father wasn't generally nice toward house-elves, but he wasn't deliberately cruel, either. Dobby, Dobby might be a special case for Father. Dobby was actually assigned as my personal elf when I was born. After Mother was taken away, Father might have blamed every cough I had on Dobby, and, err, punished Dobby accordingly. Father might think taking Dobby everywhere was a good training program for Dobby, so it would later serve me better. After I observed that Dobby was behaving oddly upon Father's return, I demanded a true answer from it. Besides almost knocking itself into concussions, it said that 'Old master is bad person', and 'Dobby is to running to the Boy-Who-Lived, and warn him of the return of the bad wizard, if the bad master didn't turn himself in'. In the name of Merlin, this kind of treason shouldn't even be possible for house-elves!"

"What? Where is Dobby now?" Severus almost rose from his chair. "Have you demanded true answers concerning loyalty to your family from other elves?"

Draco answered: "I have subdued Dobby, tied it up with multiple methods, and it is currently being watched by other elves in the Manor. As for the other elves, they are all cleared of everything."

Severus nodded, "Bring it to me. I need to check it for various mind controlling magic. Hopefully, this is the cause… Oh, don't look at me like that, Draco. If a house-elf is genuinely capable of treason, the wizarding kind is in much greater trouble than a single house-elf being controlled."

Draco's face turned white.

Twenty minutes of busy wand works later, Severus admitted that he didn't find any signs of mind controlling magic on Dobby, and Legilimens seemed to suggest that this little creature genuinely resented Lucius, and it also desired the gravest punishment for house-elves: freedom.

-Damn it!

Severus took in a deep breath, and said to his godson: "Draco, I think we need to notify Potter - and bloody Mad-Eye - that this kind of thing is even possible. We need to check every single house-elf in this castle!"

Five minutes later, when Severus began to explain how Dobby might be capable of treason to Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Mad-Eye, the Girl-Who-Revived seemed to have taken much delight upon the news that house-elves might want freedom. The girl radiating purity and innocence was looking at the new Lord Malfoy expectantly, as if it was a sin not to give Dobby his freedom.

Severus knew he shouldn't let his godson appear to be the bad guy in front of the Boy-Who-Lived and the Girl-Who-Revived, so he himself snapped, "Miss Granger, the majority of house-elves in Hogwarts are probably descendants of those conjured by Lord Salazar Slytherin! If the house-elves are capable of betraying their supposed mistress Headmistress Minerva McGonagall, why wouldn't they decide to rid Muggleborns from the school? Or, enlighten me, why can't a free-spirited house-elf just decide that it wants to steal the Stone from Hogwarts?"

Although Mad-Eye pretended that he was busy casting spells on Dobby to avoid commenting on this issue, Severus knew the paranoid old Auror agreed with him on this point.

While the girl with amazing grace, speed, and physical strength stared angrily at Severus, and Severus stared back without a blink, the Boy-Who-Lived murmured, "The Bicentennial Man, no, The Bicentennial House-elf."

Severus looked at Harry Potter in bewilderment, "Mr. Potter, the house-elves do have a life expectancy of two hundred years, but Dobby is quite young for an elf. Does this has something to do with the age of elves?"

Harry Potter shook his head, then hesitated, and sighed, "Yes, we should check all the house-elves in Hogwarts for any original thoughts. And, err, Draco, AFTER we make sure that it is safe, could you give Dobby its freedom?"

Before Draco could respond, Harry yelled with panic: "Oh, wait, forget my last sentence for now!"

The Girl-Who-Revived immediately directed her stares toward the Boy-Who-Lived.

"Hermione, I can't say it! I really can't say it!"

This proclamation sent chills down everyone's spine.


	37. Chapter 37 Nurmengard I, German Minister

I would like to thank my beta, Kuilin. After Kuilin's diligent work, I suppose I can update this story twice per week for a while.

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Chapter 37.

Nurmengard, Part I, German Minister of Magic

9:46 am, July 15th, 1993

Ever since 1952, the West German Ministry of Magic put into place a rather peculiar tradition: that all appointees to the position of guard at the Nurmengard Wizarding Prison needed to be interviewed and approved by the Minister of Magic. It was not that the men and women on the top of the political structure had no better things to occupy their time with, nor did it mean the Ministers were all power-hungry busybodies who couldn't handle any power - no matter how small - to their subordinates. It was because of a single name: Gellert Grindelwald.

If the matter were given to the hands of Rudolf Schmidt, the current German Minister of Magic, sometimes he just wished the winners of World War II just decided to handle Grindelwald to the dementors, instead of creating a permanent problem for the Ministry of Magic.

Unfortunately, after Albus Dumbledore defeated Gellert Grindelwald, both the Russians and the Americans wanted to get the secrets Lord Grindelwald knew, especially why he had been invincible as a result of the Muggles he sacrificed. And the Brits, since they got the majority of Grindelwald's ancient relic collections, and maybe since Albus Dumbledore had a special soft spot for the blond dark lord, did not protest the decision to keep the lives of the cold blooded murderers and warmongers of the previous Wizarding World War.

From a certain point of view, Rudolf Schmidt could understand why the lords and ladies who wielded real power wanted to keep Grindelwald alive; but what he didn't understand was why the Americans, the Russians, and the French had regular visits with Grindelwald, and swindled Merlin knew how many secrets out of him, while the Germans had to be held responsible for the safety of Nurmengard!

-_Don't they know that all German wizards and witches with real powers are either dead, or in Nurmengard? And no security is perfect unless it has some powerful wizards or witches behind it!_

Rudolf had suspected that, if it were only up to the lords and ladies in Washington, D.C., or up to the comrades in Moscow, they might decide to torture the secrets out of Grindelwald, hence ending the permanent problem. However, Washington and Moscow were obviously not friends, and they fought fervently for moral high grounds on such eyeball-attracting matters.

-_And not to mention the goodie-oldie Albus Dumbledore, who was against torture of any kind! _

To be fair, before June 1992, the only thing that kept the previous West German Ministers of Magic asleep at night was the fact that Albus Dumbledore, the most powerful wizard in the world, paid Grindelwald a monthly visit, and checked the securities of Nurmengard. The fact that Grindelwald promised Dumbledore that he would not escape might have helped, but nobody wanted to rely too much on that promise, nobody except the goodie-oldie Albus Dumbledore, anyway.

Unfortunately, even Albus Dumbledore couldn't stop Grindelwald from parceling some of his dark secrets to unwanted ears. In 1947, there was a prisoner named Emeric Meyer, who was sentenced four years into the prison for multiple petty thefts. This man was assigned to Grindelwald as his errand boy. According to what Rudolf heard, it was because you didn't want the most dangerous dark lord in the European Continent to decide that he wanted to run away for trivial things such as the taste of his morning coffee, or the way his bed was made, and because Emeric Meyer was weak in magic and was pretty slow in the brain department - according to his interrogators, anyway. Rudolf had doubted whether the Americans might be behind this decision as well. Not entirely a surprise for anyone, only one year after Emeric Meyer was released, that man became a very dangerous dark wizard. It took three really powerful wizards to track him down and kill him. Rudolf had suspected that if those three were not each from the United States, France, and the Soviet Union, it might not take that many powerful wizards to do it, nor might Meyer be killed during his arrest.

It was needless to say that the world powers had put more efforts into persuading Lord Grindelwald into parceling out more of his secrets ever since, and no prisoners with any sentence shorter than lifetime imprisonment was allowed anywhere near Grindelwald.

Unfortunately, the Ministry couldn't restrict the freedom of the prison guards after their job. The Ministry had wanted to let every guard take an Unbreakable Vow of some sort, yet both the Americans and the Russians had fervently objected any idea of that sort for "human rights reasons". Rudolf was sure that some of the guards were actually American spies, or Russian spies, or both, and Grindelwald might know who was on which side better than the poor West German Ministry of Magic.

-_Well, while American Muggle troops and wizarding delegations were in one part of your country, and the Russians were in the other part, one couldn't actually argue the unfairness of the whole matter. At least, when the Americans had five to seven powerful lords and ladies, and the Russians had three to five comrades, magical West Germany, which had none, had no bargaining power whatsoever._

In the 1970s, while the extraordinary powerful dark wizard who named himself Lord Voldemort rose into power in Great Britain, many people had suspected that this man had somehow gained magical knowledge from Grindelwald. Lord Grindelwald had neither confirmed nor denied that speculation.

After David Monroe was supposedly killed by Lord Voldemort, Bartemius Crouch, the Director of the Department of Law Enforcement in the British Ministry of Magic had called the international wizarding society for help. The Americans, the Russians and the French had offered nothing more or less than their utmost moral support.

Some presumptuous Muggle-loving nerds had explained the reluctance of the international community to offer any real help to the Brits as some laughable Muggle psychology terms, such as "bystander effect". However, Rudolf had a much better explanation: the Brits had possessed too many powerful magical relics and secrets for too long.

On the Muggle side of the world, if the Americans and Russians had cooperated in one really important matter since the end of World War II, it was the demolition of the British and French colonial system. After World War II, both the Muggle British and Muggle French government had tried both diplomatic and military approaches to continue their reigns in their colonies, yet the Americans and the Russians had sabotaged all their efforts. In the Suez Crisis, while Muggle Britain and France allied with Israel and started a military operation in Suez Canal to keep their special interest in Egypt, the Americans staged a run on the pounds while the Russians threatened Britain and France with a nuclear war. With the efforts from the Americans and Russians, the 1960s and 1970s witnessed the birth of many newly independent states, and Great Britain was no longer an imperial power.

On the wizarding side of things, however, Great Britain had Albus Dumbledore, the most powerful wizard in the world. Since the old man was never interested in helping the Muggles of his country maintain their colonial system, the goodie-oldie was highly praised by both the Free and the Communist countries, and was showered with all kinds of honors. However, by the 1970s, when most of the British colonies had declared independence, and the Americans and the Russians each got their share of the game, the most powerful wizard in the world began to seem too old and too stubborn with his important secrets.

Therefore, while Lord Voldemort rose out of nowhere - some speculated Grindelwald was behind him, others suspected the Americans or Russians were backing him up, while some even speculated whether the hands of the Chinese or Japanese were involved - the world just held back their hands and observed what Albus Dumbledore could do.

To the amazement of the entire wizarding world, each time Lord Voldemort seemed to have gained the upper hand, Albus Dumbledore could pull something out of his magical hat, or did something really complicated and weird, and then he was able to regain some advantage. And in 1981, Lord Voldemort was vanquished - surely by a trap from Dumbledore, not some baby - and Dumbledore had proved that he was the better man.

The world became much friendlier toward Dumbledore after that, and the interest in Grindelwald's secrets reached a new height - everyone who wielded real power knew that Dumbledore and Grindelwald were close in their youth, and it was against common sense to think that these two gained their ancient knowledge through different means.

The demolition of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War brought a major reorganization to the Ministry of Magic, and Rudolph became the first German - no longer West German, or East German, just German - Minister of Magic.

Unfortunately, the reunification of the two German Ministries of Magic hadn't ended the permanent problem in Nurmengard - Rudolf had hoped the Americans had decided to just take Grindelwald to Washington as a trophy for winning the Cold War, but the goodie-oldie Albus Dumbledore was still the most powerful wizard in the world, so the Americans didn't even try.

One year ago, the day when Lord Voldemort suddenly reappeared and was subsequently vanquished again, the Flamels were slaughtered, and Albus Dumbledore disappeared as well. The story the Boy-Who-Lived recounted was obviously a lie for anyone with a shred of a brain - many had agreed that the Flamels might be killed by Voldemort, while Voldemort might be defeated by the combined forces of Albus Dumbledore and the previously disappeared David Monroe.

Before anyone had figured out what really happened that night, or, more importantly, what actually happened to Albus Dumbledore, the British wizards shocked the rest of the world again, by offering the healing power of the Philosopher's Stone to everyone in the world. This overtly nice gesture and the attribution of all glories to a young child had some resemblance to the wired plots of the goodie-oldie, but it was too good to be true even for Albus Dumbledore.

And after Gellert Grindelwald learned that Albus Dumbledore was "frozen in Time", and the Philosopher's Stone was available to anyone with lethal conditions, he claimed that he might be able to unravel some mysteries related to "the origin of magic" if he were given the chance to try to rescue Dumbledore from Time and study the Stone. Lord Grindelwald even promised that he would take Unbreakable Vows of any contents that might satisfy the British, German, and American magical authorities before doing so.

Grindelwald's eagerness forced all the lords and ladies with real power and intelligence to pause and think before they made any efforts in robbing or stealing the Stone.

Though Rudolf himself was never powerful enough to anywhere near the level of Albus Dumbledore - otherwise, nobody would make him Minister of Magic - sometimes, he couldn't help but to wonder if Albus Dumbledore had plotted the whole thing.

-_Maybe the old man finally realized his old age, and foresaw what might happen to Great Britain once he died. Perhaps he had sacrificed his own life and magic, - or maybe that of the unfortunate Flamels, Monroe, Lord Voldemort, and Death Eaters - to construct some formidable protections against all potential enemies. _

-_Maybe the Stone is just a bizarre lure, and something unspeakable would happen to anyone who made a real effort to get it. This thing may only be able to strike a limited number of times, but nobody wants to be the first one at the receiving end of Dumbledore's final weird plot._

-_Moreover, who can be sure that Albus Dumbledore is actually "disappeared"? Great Britain had witnessed the disappearances and reappearances of Lord Voldemort, David Monroe, the Girl-Who-Revived, and most recently, Lucius Malfoy. Who can say that Dumbledore isn't going to be the next one? _

-_Maybe this is indeed something related to the origin of magic, as Grindelwald had claimed. In that case, the whole affair might relate to why Dumbledore and Grindelwald had risen to their level of power. Then..._

Not being a really powerful wizard himself, Rudolf couldn't quite fathom the "what-ifs" in case the matter involved the origin of magic, but he knew it was enough to cause the world's lords and ladies to temporarily halt their plans.

-_Maybe they want Grindelwald to test things out first, or maybe something else._

It was needless to say that Madam Bones' insistence that all prisoners in Azkaban should be moved to Nurmengard attracted more attention to a particular prisoner, and the whole world wondered the real reason behind this bizarre act.

-_True, the dementor treatment before was highly inhuman, but after the Girl-Who-Revived supposedly killed all dementors, why did they still have to move every prisoner to Nurmengard? Actually, why did they get rid of all dementors in the first place? They suddenly became better persons? What a joke!_

Under the pressure from the curious Americans, Rudolf agreed to accept the British prisoners. Luckily for him, most of the prisoners had gone mad due to years of exposure to dementors, and they could be easily managed. And, since then, the British Ministry of Magic had only handed him common criminals, and nobody needed to be locked into the lifetime wards in which Grindelwald was held.

After a year, poor Rudolf had fantasized that things might have settled down a bit, yet he knew that was too good to be true: the aged Lord Gellert Grindelwald was on the waiting list for the use of the Stone, and it would be his turn to return to youth in two months. After that, Rudolf wondered what forces could possibly hold the rejuvenated most powerful wizard in the world in the very prison that he built.

For what was worse, three weeks ago, the supposedly dead Lucius Malfoy suddenly reappeared. From the looks of it, the British Ministry of Magic had every intention to put this intelligent ex-Death Eater into the lifetime wards.

-_For Merlin's sake, who are they kidding? The very Death Eater whose son is a very close friend to the Boy-Who-Lived, and who had been an ally of Harry Potter? And you are telling me the Brits are not up to something?_

-_Is it a plot on the Brits' part to get in contact with Grindelwald? Or are they trying to warn the rest of the world that Dumbledore might return anytime? _

_-Who would reappear next? Charles Nott, whose son is closed to Potter as well? Any other Death Eaters? Any previous holders of Line of Merlin Unbroken? Hogwarts Four? Merlin himself? I wonder when the Brits get this habit of reappearing after their supposed death! _

-_Moreover, damn the Americans! I am quite sure they are going to pressure me to put Malfoy together with Grindelwald, just to see what happens next! _

And now, after what appeared that Lord Voldemort might have made another return, Rudolf was faced again with the permanent devil for every German Minister of Magic: approving a prison guard for the lifetime wards of Nurmengard.

During the years, Rudolf had already given up the hope of figuring out why each and everyone of those intelligent people applied for the low-paying and low-status jobs in Nurmengard; if the power behind the applicants were the from Americans, Russians, French, or whoever; and whether they were just some self-motivated wannabe dark wizards.

At any rate, Rudolf Schmidt glanced again at the resume of the best candidate for this job, a likeable young chap named Alexander Dimitrov. According to the papers, his parents were heros in the war against Grindelwald, he was educated in Durmstrang, graduated with outstanding marks, and had several suspicious "international traveling" years after graduation. In a word, he was the common sort of people who applied for prison guard jobs in Nurmengard.

-_Damn the Americans! Ever since the end of the Cold War, they have even abandoned the courtesy to make the resumes look at least inconspicuous!_

Rudolf sighed, and signaled his secretary to let Alexander Dimitrov in.


	38. Chapter 38 Nurmengard II, Lucius Malfoy

I would like to thank my beta, Kuilin. After Kuilin's diligent work, I suppose I can update this story twice per week for a while.

* * *

Chapter 38.

Nurmengard, Part II, Lucius Malfoy

10:23 am, July 15th, 1993

According to the rushed decision by the survivors of the eighty-ninth Wizengamot, Lucius Abraxas Malfoy, aka. Mr. White, was sentenced 357 years in prison for his previous crimes as a Death Eater. Since the ex-Lord Malfoy, who was now only Mr. Malfoy, had been quite cooperative in his trials, and he had some unspecified "considerable contributions to the wizarding society and the world", the prison sentence had been reduced to 234 years. Lucius hoped that his wisdom and luck would help him to significantly shorten this unpleasant period of time, though that highly depends on how he would perform in the next two months.

Handcuffed behind his back, baggy orange prison robes on his body, the ex-Lord Malfoy was escorted through the yard of Nurmengard towards the lifetime wards by three prison guards. Trying to ignore the grim future prospect that this might be his residence for a long time, the blond man observed the jet black castle.

The sounds of huge waves clashing with rocks and the damp and salty wind told everyone inside Nurmengard that the prison was located on a rocky cliff near the North Sea, From what Lucius read before he came here, viewing from outside, the black formidable fortress was rectangular in shape, with four towering keeps in each corner. A glimpse from inside told Lucius that the prison guards on the towers could effectively shoot every inch of the rectangular inner yard, leaving no blind spot. According to the newspapers, during the past year, the northeast corner of the castle had been transformed into the "Healing and Consultation Center", and it was where most of the dementor-exposed former prisoners of Azkaban were located. From what Lucius had heard, the healings didn't make much progress. Heading to southwest, Lucius supposed that the rumors that the lifetime wards were located in the southwest corner might be true. However, for a magical castle that might or might not have some resemblance to Hogwarts or Azkaban in its defensive wards, judging the orientations according to the sun could be misleading, and the direction of the gates bore no indications of the actual directions while you were inside the castle.

After the two guards in front of the southwest corner gate and the guards escorting Lucius exchanged some passwords, Lucius and the guards were lead through a Thief's Downfall, and were probed with a series of interesting magical devices. About five minutes later, the southwest corner gate creaked open, and the blond prisoner became the subject of another round of checks after he went through the gate. Finally, the new prisoner and guard trio were allowed to step into the corridors.

Although the outside of Nurmengard was a standard high-security magical castle, amazingly, the inside resembled -

With a suppressed shudder, Lucius remembered the pictures of Muggle concentration camps that he recently saw: the walls were deathly white, the floor was gloomy grey, and the corridors were depressingly straight and narrow, with tall black iron prison cell doors meticulously arranged on each side.

-_Did he, did he want to sacrifice his wizarding prisoners the same way he used the Muggles to be invincible? _

When it was all about how Grindelwald killed millions of Muggles to gain infinite power, Lucius never thought much of it - the world might be a better place with more of those pests gone; and if Grindelwald had done it sooner, the "nuclear weapons" that had worried Severus so much probably wouldn't even exist. However, to consider the possibility that the Malfoys might one day lose his Lordship's favor in the hypothetic scenario that Grindelwald had won, and this might be the place where the Malfoys might end up with…

Swallowing down hard, Lucius admitted to himself that Albus Dumbledore might have done one good thing in his life.

Several long corridors and five stairs up later, where Lucius figured that the castle was much larger from the inside than from outside, the guard trio stopped in front of Zelle 537, and opened the heavy iron door. Lucius stepped into the cell, and the door closed behind him immediately. Then, the guards opened a small opening in the larger door, and instructed Lucius to put his hands through the small door. While one of the guards was untying the handcuffs, Lucius eyed the small single cell - unfortunately, _his_ single cell.

This room was approximately half of the size of the semi-comfortable holding cell in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, yet it was much better than the abysmal conditions for prisoners of Azkaban before it was turned into the Hospital - not that the prisoners would notice anything with the presence of dementors. Although any common sense of orientation would determine it as impossible, Lucius could still see the gloomy North Sea through the small window. Lucius suppose, this view was better than the grim sight of the Nurmengard inner yard - the Boy-Who-Lived probably didn't lie about that the ex-Lord Malfoy would get the best reasonable treatment in Nurmengard. Beside the window, there was a neatly-made single bed with grey sheet, and all the corners of the bed was round, and perhaps magically cushioned. Near the head of the bed stood a small round-cornered hardwood desk, and a chair affixed to some rails on the concrete floor, so that you could only move it forward or backward in front of the desk, yet there was no way that you could lift the chair up and use it as a weapon. Near the end of the bed, there was a small chest drawer. If the German prison officials were not boasting about their working efficiency, the limited underclothes and other items that Lucius was allowed to bring here should already be inside it. Besides the chest drawer, there was the toilet and the standing shower. As Impervius charms eliminated the practical necessity of walls and curtains between the shower and other furnitures, and the privacy of prisoners were not of much concern to the designers of this fortress, Lucius supposed that he had to swallow down this unpleasant adjustment to his lifestyle.

As his hands were free from the handcuffs, and the small door in the clunky iron door was shut behind, Lucius rubbed his wrists, and moved toward the small wooden desk. Lucius opened the drawer in the desk, and found the real luxury that he was allowed to purchase in Nurmengard: newspapers.

Lucius flipped through the headlines in the _Daily Prophet_, and found no new instructions from the Boy-Who-Lived, - well, he just finished the conversation with the Potter boy merely ten hours ago, so there was no need for new instructions on today's newspaper.

Lucius frowned as he thought of the uncomfortable conversation yesterday, where the Boy-Who-Lived grilled him about everything he did to the treacherous little creature named Dobby. Under the angry stares from the Girl-Who-Revived and sneers from Mad-Eye, Lucius admitted that he had used some illegal-on-human magic on Dobby. To avoid further judgements from the Granger girl and Mad-Eye, Lucius changed into Parseltongue to list the various curses he had employed, such as Cruciatus Curse, Imperius Curse, Gom jabbar, and something else along the same line.

Unfortunately, the Boy-Who-Lived had to ask Severus and Mad-Eye about the effects and rumors on each curse in detail in English, and Lucius had to endure the Girl-Who-Revived's constant judgements.

"Err, the Cruciatus Curse breaks one's soul? I mean, could you explain it in less metaphoric words?" The Potter boy had asked.

Lucius was first confused by Potter's question, because "breaks one's soul" was exactly what Cruciatus Curse did, there was nothing metaphoric about it, and the potion that could mitigate the sufferings of Cruciatus victims was called "Soul Healing Potion".

From later discussion between Severus and Potter, Lucius realized that the Boy-Who-Lived didn't believe in the existence of souls.

-_But that is ridiculous! If wizards don't have souls, how can animagus think? How does Polyjuice work?_

Lucius wanted to utter his disagreement, yet he checked his tongue, because he didn't want to contradict his new Light Lord on such theoretical issues.

Then, something hit Lucius: _I don't remember anything happening between the point of my death and the point of my revival! Therefore, therefore..._

Lucius drew in a horrified breath: _there is no afterlife._

Mad-Eye observed Lucius' change in breath, and snarled, "What, Lucius? You'd better spell it out, for your own sake!"

Lucius sighed, "Lord Potter, I have just realized that I can attest to your idea that there is no afterlife. At least, there is nothing that I can recall between my death and revival. _I sspoke truth._"

"OK, then we can eliminate the whole 'creation-of-a-soul' thing from our discussion." The Potter boy proclaimed. "Let's move to the breach of predetermined magical rules."

To Lucius' slight amazement, Severus chose to refute the new Light Lord's idea: "Mr. Potter, you do realize that soul and afterlife are two different concepts. As an animagus and a potioneer, I still tend to believe in the existence of souls. There are potions that claim to be able to heal or damage souls, and it appears that the potions perform their functions as described."

While Severus and Potter entered a rather academic discussion, Lucius re-evaluated his new Light Lord.

-_The Boy-Who-Lived doesn't seem to be bothered by such disagreements. Well, this is something different from Riddle._

Just then, the Girl-Who-Revived raised her head from a bulky book that she was reading, and asked, "In the description in this book, Gom jabbar and a poisonous needle can be used to test if someone is a human or an animal, for a human can endure the pain caused by Gom jabbar, and not to flinch toward the poisonous needle, while an animal cannot. So how did Dobby react to your Gom jabbar, and what did you say or do around the time you punish Dobby with Gom jabbar?"

Lucius tried hard to remember, and answered, "I told it not to scream, otherwise I would punish it more severely. And after a few times, Dobby stopped screaming during my punishments. But how can that make it a human?"

"Oh, Lucius, oh, Lucius, you dimwit! " Severus - instead of anyone else - snapped at him."You set a test and asked Dobby to behave like a human, or to be a human! The master's orders are the highest laws of house-elves, so Dobby did!"

Lucius wanted to protest, and yet he found Severus' arguments quite convincing.

The girl radiating a sense of innocence and purity said in amazement: "So the cruel master is the reason that Dobby is capable of a mind of its own!"

"A mind of its own?" The Boy-Who-Lived repeated the Girl-Who-Revived's words with his eyes wide open.

Lucius had a sense that the Potter boy had just discovered something very important. And judging from the change of expression on Severus' face, Lucius guessed his new best friend had thought of something really important as well.

As for what they might have figured out, Lucius hadn't figured out yet. Lucius supposed, if he was unlucky, he would have hundreds of years to decrypt this mystery.

Comparing to some rather theoretical magic problems, Lucius would rather prefer to entangle some political conundrum, such as why the world's top wizards hadn't attacked Hogwarts yet. After Lucius instructed Severus to bribe the right bureaucrats, and asked the right questions, it turned out that they owed quite a lot to Albus Dumbledore's reputation of weirdness and power, and Grindelwald's reaction to the events one year ago. Lucius wondered if Lord Grindelwald had considered Great Britain as his own playground after Dumbledore was locked in Time, and said something specifically designed to deter the Americans and Russians from doing anything real.

Unfortunately for Lucius, even in the field that he considered his game, the major players might consider magic theory more important than politics, for Lord Grindelwald had claimed that the reason Albus Dumbledore disappeared had something to do with the "origin of magic", and this, somehow made the rest of the world pause and think.

After Severus delivered Grindelwald's statement to the Boy-Who-Lived the day before yesterday, Severus, Draco, the Granger girl, and the Potter boy all agreed the claim itself might be true; while Mad-Eye, who had been approached by people who tried to deliver the same statement from Lord Grindelwald before, didn't believe a single word.

Lucius had never walked the walks of powerful wizards, and he had never dreamt that he would - what Lucius excelled at was people. By comparing the different reactions of Potter, Granger, Severus, and Mad-Eye upon the previous "origin of magic" issue and the house-elf issue, Lucius could sort of fancy why Mad-Eye failed in his attempt to become a really powerful lord: _this guy is slower in powerful wizardry than I am. _

For the next thirty minutes or so, Lucius watched as they discussed "free will", "predetermined magical rules" and "origin of magic", where Severus and Potter did most of the talking. Lucius didn't quite understand all the contents they were talking about, but he could see one thing: _if anyone in the Potter boy's headquarter office is going to be a really powerful lord, Potter and Severus have the best chances._

Lucius started to consider how he should treat Severus differently after this discovery, and contemplated what this might mean for his future plans.

-_The Boy-Who-Lived, the Girl-Who-Revived, Severus, and Grindelwald, are all more interested in powerful wizardry than current politics. Maybe I should instruct Draco to do the same, and stick closer to his new Godfather._

-_Thinking along the same line, I should change my approach when I meet Grindelwald. The leverages that I can use on Lord Grindelwald should be important secrets on powerful wizardry. The problem with this approach is that I can hardly see the danger in any of the important secrets I know, maybe Severus and Potter might enlighten me on this._

When Severus and Potter reached the point that they were full of speculations and without enough power or resources to confirm or falsify the majority of the ideas, Lucius raised his point, and asked what he could offer Lord Grindelwald.

Then, Severus and Potter entered another long academic discussion, while Mad-Eye were either suggesting that Lucius raised this question because he was up to something, or pointing out how dangerous each secret could be.

-_This old lunatic is good at one thing: how dangerous everything could be._

Finally, they agreed on one least harmful secret: part of the reason Hermione Granger was like this, had something to do with the sacrifice of an unicorn (as many had already guessed out); and in case something happened to the Girl-Who-Revived, there would be so much backlashes from the Universe, that the origin of magic might be destroyed (many people already knew the rumor about unicorn blood and Liquid Luck, anyway).

Therefore, now Lucius was stuck with only one thing that he could offer Lord Grindelwald (which Lord Grindelwald might already know), and his task was to wiggle out what the Russians and Americans had been trying for the past fifty years from the clearly very intelligent Lord Grindelwald.

Lucius sighed, and continued to imagine various scenarios how his first meeting with Lord Grindelwald would go.


	39. Chapter 39 Nurmengard III, Grindelwald

I would like to thank my beta, Kuilin. After Kuilin's diligent work, I suppose I can update this story twice per week for a while.

* * *

Chapter 39.

Nurmengard, Part III, Gellert Grindelwald

9:24 am, July 16th, 1993

Lord Gellert Grindelwald sat by his large oak desk in his luxurious study, and flipped through the preprints of the next month's _The Practical Potioneer_ \- after being the one of the world's top magical researchers in secret for almost fifty years, this was what you got as a privilege: access to anything published or to be published.

However, Lord Grindelwald's heart wasn't on the improvements of Soul Healing Potion highlighted in the magazine at all, he was pondering on what the Brits wanted to deliver to him by sending Lucius Malfoy here.

Lord Grindelwald wasn't lying when he said that the reason Albus Dumbledore was locked in Time could be related to the origin of magic. With the blatantly obvious traps dear old Albus set up the year before, which couldn't even stop a first year Hogwarts students from entering, there had been enough foolish and defenseless students entering the chamber where there was a large golden mirror that they could see what they desire on the mirror. Various sources - ranging from the Americans, Russians, to self-aspired dark wizards - had all confirmed the existence of such a mirror. From the description, Grindelwald could only think of one mirror: the Mirror of Noitilov.

Grindelwald had never seen the Mirror, but he had heard and read enough of it: the Mirror of Perfect Reflection, older than Merlin himself, where phoenixes came from, probably a relic from the Atlantis, where it all began.

-_The Mirror of Noitilov and the Stone of Permanency, what a typical British trap! So full of ancient relics and mysteries, and so powerful. Just the type of thing my dear old Albus prefers. _

-_Maybe it is due to the influence of Albus, the Brits are such a hopeless lot! When the rest of the world has moved forward, they are still clinging hard on old glories. During all his monthly visits, Albus didn't even ask me what I have accomplished. He just simply ruled everything as "too cruel to hear about". What a ridiculous lunatic! _

Resentments toward old Albus aside, Grindelwald did think the Mirror and the Stone had everything to do with the origin of magic, and he was indeed quite interested in studying them. Although dear old Albus probably had set up some sort of trap there - maybe specifically for him, Grindelwald didn't plan to give up on entangling the biggest mystery in history without even trying.

-_If what the Brits said had a single shred of truth in it, the reason Albus disappeared indeed has something to do with Time, - a character both the Mirror of Noitilov and the Stone of Permanency share, Albus got to have invoked some arcane power in those relics. What other things could be "locked in Time"? Secrets of Atlantis? Creators of the Mirror and the Stone? _

-_Literally for the sake of Atlantis, I would very much like to rescue the creators of the Mirror and the Stone from Time. Albus, sorry, you are just such a small bonus as comparing to them._

A year's time had already allowed Grindelwald to formulate hundreds of plans that he could try on the Mirror and the Stone, yet everything was in vain unless he could actually lay his hands on these ancient relics.

It was not that Lord Grindelwald, currently the most powerful wizard in the world, couldn't escape from the very prison he himself designed that had prevented him from escaping, it was the combined effects of the lack of the Death Stick, the lack of the sacrificing Muggles, and his fading age, that had made Lord Grindelwald unsure of the prospect of facing down the combined forces of half a dozen wizarding lords and ladies. If everything could be managed, Grindelwald would rather prefer to regain his youth first, and to study the origin of magic peacefully (and without the possibly dreadful Unbreakable Vow) later. As for conquering the world, and ruling the Muggles, those could all wait until Lord Grindelwald figured out literally the most important secret in history.

Hence, Grindelwald was quite interested in what Lucius Malfoy was about to deliver.

A beeping sound notified Grindelwald the arrival of his visitor.

Grindelwald strode toward his living room, glanced through the view mirror, and saw the blond new prisoner and the guard trio who were escorting the British aristocrat. Among the guards, was one chubby-faced brown-haired newbie, possibly Alexander Dimitrov.

-_Ah, the new boys, always so eager._

Grindelwald checked his protection wards, and pressed a button. It was something ironic that you even needed to be careful when you were locked up in the very prison you designed. In the early days of his imprisonment, Grindelwald went through at least four assassination attempts by both some prison guards and follow inmates, before the Americans and the Russians agreed that Lord Grindelwald's mind was way too precious to be destroyed by some amateur hero-wannabe or avenge-seeker, thus they gradually increased the range of magic that the former dark lord was legally allowed to use.

As the iron door slowly opened, Grindelwald appraised the messenger from United Kingdom. This ex-Lord Malfoy was a fine specimen of a poster Aryan wizard: pureblood, aristocratic, light-blond hair, blue eyes, a long and narrow face, a high nose, handsome, tall, well-behaved, clever, and relatively powerful before whatever happened one year ago. Or, to put it simply, this man had as much resemblance to Lord Grindelwald himself in his youth as an ordinary wizard could be.

-_Presenting me with this man, ah, the Brits are seriously up to something._

After the guards were done with untying Lucius's hands from the small opening in the large iron door, and closed it from behind, the younger blond nodded politely to the elder one, and spoke with a clear British accent: "Guten Morgen, Lord Grindelwald."

-_Nah, he needs to improve his German._

In order to avoid any misunderstandings caused by the British aristocrat's substandard German, Grindelwald spoke in impeccable English, and gestured to his guest room, "Good morning, Mr. Malfoy. If it were not too bothersome to you, could you change into the clothes I prepared for my guests? - One can hardly believe what the naughty boys might have done to the prison uniforms."

-_And the orange color, eww, what an eyesore!_

As his guest was changing into proper wizarding robes in the guest room, Grindelwald briefly amused himself by contemplating what the new prison guard Alexander Dimitrov might have tried to apply to Lucius' clothes and his body.

-_That guy conceals it well, yet the sense of danger radiating from him is unmistakable. Let me see what kind of entertainment this dark-lord-wannabe would offer me within the next two months. _

After Lucius exited the guest room, Grindelwald applied several wandless privacy spells that he could legally use, plus some wordless and wandless extra, and then nodded to the younger blond.

The British aristocrat half-bowed to Lord Grindelwald, "Lord Grindelwald, I am here to deliver our sincere gratitude for what you have done for the peace of Great Britain."

Grindelwald showed Lucius the sofa, and casually said, "Ah, that. I suppose one shouldn't credit oneself too much for what one has done for one's own territory."

The British aristocrat's mask might have cracked a bit, but he quickly collected himself, and claimed, "Lord Grindelwald, with all due respect, we spoke truth about Lord Dumbledore's conditions."

-_OK, he is not here to surrender. Farewell, my best case scenario. To be honest with myself, if the Brits are really about to give up on their knees, I suppose the Americans might be a better choice. With seven hypocritic and squabbling lords and ladies, the Brits might be able to wiggle out something in resemblance to freedom. _

"And for some reason, the British wizards either cannot or would not extract Albus from Time." Grindelwald pointed out the obvious facts, "From a certain point of view, I suppose Great Britain is indeed safer when the rest of the world has no idea about Albus' true condition, for the unknown is usually more terrifying than the known. However, I wonder how much longer Great Britain can hide behind Albus' reputation."

Lucius smiled bitterly, "I suppose, we can establish some new reputations."

"Such as?" Grindelwald was somewhat intrigued.

-_The annoying Brits, you may never know how many ancient relics they possess. In the name of Atlantis, why was Merlin born in Britain?_

"Miss Hermione Jane Granger, or the so-called Girl-Who-Revived, bears some great resemblance to a unicorn." Lucius provided.

"Ah, so you are here to claim that the rumor on the side-effects of unicorn blood is true, and you want me to deliver this news to the rest of the world." Grindelwald reasoned. "And why should I believe you? Or, regardless of my personal belief, why should I slip such indications to the interested ears?"

"Tom Morfin Riddle can attest to the less than pleasant after-effects of unicorn blood." Lucius' lips twisted into a sly smile.

Grindelwald remembered the rumors about the slayed unicorns in Hogwarts before that night. He couldn't help but smiled to himself.

-_Ah, my dear old Albus, always so good at traps._

Grindelwald didn't plan to say that he was somewhat convinced by the evidence. He asked, "Whatever lead to the temporary re-disappearance of this Riddle, I do believe he has recently made another round of return, hasn't he? Or, since you were supposedly there, could you enlighten me on what indeed happened that night?"

Lucius' smile turned bitter again. "Lord Grindelwald, my tongue is tied on this matter. However, I can disclose that there was indeed a sacrificial ritual involved."

Grindelwald contemplated this answered, and wondered what Albus had done. He knew Albus had access to the Hall of Prophecy, and a true seer Trelawney was among the Hogwarts staff, therefore Albus could often make some bizarre movements and somehow let everything go his way. This made deducing Albus' plots very difficult, even for the person who knew him best.

-_With the help from the information passed to him by Time, the so-called "sacrificial ritual" could be as simple as an Unbreakable Vow!_

-_Oh, wait._

Grindelwald eyed the weak wizard in front of him, "Is it an Unbreakable Vow?"

The younger blond answered without a blink, "Lord Grindelwald, with all due respect, I can neither confirm nor deny your current speculation, or any speculation in this nature."

-_Hmm, this does sound like an Unbreakable Vow. In the name of Atlantis, how did Albus defeat an enemy by an Unbreakable Vow? You can't simple take a vow and say you will defeat someone, and gain the power from the Vow. No Unbreakable Vow of such nature can stand, hardly anyone tried that survived from it. Or, did Albus discover some advanced-level Unbreakable Vow?_

Then, Grindelwald's eyes sparkled: _yes, there is indeed an advanced-level of Unbreakable Vow. Every Interdict powerful wizards imposed on this world is an advanced-level of Unbreakable Vow._

-_Did Albus throw away his Time to make his Interdict stand? Or, did he use the lives and magic of the Flamels, Monroe, and the Death Eaters to do it? _

-_Lucius Malfoy's head was mercifully spared, with only part of his magic sacrificed, for he had changed his side before that night. And his wife was also returned to him. Oh, the treatment of Lucius Malfoy is so Albus._

-_And what's the content of this Interdict? Anyone with serious attempts to the Stone and/or the Mirror is doomed?_

-_Or, is it what the Brits want me to think?_

Grindelwald pondered on this question, while asking, "Is there any other message that you want to deliver to me?"

The British aristocrat who was busy studying Grindelwald's face answered. "That is all for now. Lord Grindelwald, is there anything that you want me to deliver back to the holder of Line of Merlin Unbroken?"

-_Bones? That foolish woman? Or, did he mean Albus? Do they have some means to communicate with Albus?_

Grindelwald considered the implications, and motioned his hand. He pointed to a stack of paper floating toward Lucius, and said, "My standard welcome package, of course. It contains some of my research results on magical reproduction. By the way, for your information, blood purity does make sense to a certain extent."

The younger blond's face went blank for an entire second before he could smile and reply, "Lord Grindelwald, I can hardly express our gratitude toward your generosity."

Before the British envoy to Nurmengard could utter more nonsense, Grindelwald told the ex-Lord Malfoy that he should take the current proper garments as a gift as well, and dismissed the talkative British aristocrat.

-_Oh, Albus. Why did you never take my welcome package? Is it because you were so afraid that my research might invalidate your beloved political correctness that you refuse to see the truth? Without you meddling everything, I suppose the British wizarding society can finally enjoy the benefits that the rest of the wizarding society in the developed world had already enjoyed for almost fifty years, and see some increase in the number of the newborns. _

-_My dear old Albus, I would really like to see your face when you welcome the new generation of Grindelwald-method-born students._


	40. Chapter 40 Nurmengard, Interlude

I would like to thank my beta, Kuilin.

* * *

Chapter 40.

Nurmengard, Interlude, Message to Britain

3:42 pm, July 16th, 1993 (Kiev Time)

"Circaduplucem!" Severus wiped sweat off his forehead, panted, and reapplied the powerful disillusion charm that his rejuvenated ancestor taught him.

Salazar studied the map of Kiev in his hands, and pointed to his left, "I think the former Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti of Ukraine building should be the fourth one on our left, and that is probably where we can find the wizards working for their Muggle government."

Severus nodded, and gasped, "Yes, the Muggle minister I - I used Legilimens on, thought so."

"Control yourself, Severus. Otherwise, you will be stuttering in modern English as well." The thirty-something Lord Salazar Slytherin scolded. "And your learning speed of the Slavic languages is slower than mine!"

Severus tried hard to prevent his wand hand from trembling, and followed his energetic ancestor and mentor's foot steps.

"Be quick! We haven't even figured out where they are holding the nuclear talks yet, not to mention Russian's magical discoveries." Salazar strode towards the entrance of the former KGB building.

Panting hard, Severus ran after Salazar, so that he didn't need to enlarge the circle of Circaduplucem.

What saved Severus from total magical exhaustion was the beeping sound from the double-sided mirror in his pouch. The black-haired man stopped, pulled the mirror out from his pouch, and pressed the "call-you-back-in-five-minutes" button.

"The Boy-Who-Lived?" Salazar asked.

Severus nodded.

Salazar grabbed Severus' wrist, and Apparated to their room in an upscale muggle hotel.

Severus quickly took care of his appearances, and steadied his breath.

Before Severus opened the double-sided mirror, Salazar stood in front of Severus where you couldn't see from the mirror holding in Severus' hand, getting ready to memory charm Severus in case he was pressed to utter some inconvenient truth in Parseltongue.

Severus silently thanked Salazar for not memory charming him directly, for he was so sick of being memory charmed all the time.

Severus opened the mirror, and connected to the Boy-Who-Lived.

"Professor Snape, Mr. Lucius Malfoy is being transported back to Britain to provide evidence on the crimes committed by other Death Eaters at 3 pm, London Time. It should be 5 pm in Kiev Time," Harry Potter said. "Can you come back to join us in my office then?"

Severus was silently amazed by the ex-Lord Malfoy's efficiency, and nodded. "I will be back on time."

Severus closed the mirror and sighed as he accepted his fate of being memory charmed again.

* * *

2:54 pm, July 16th, 1993 (London Time)

When Severus exited from the green flames, he received a warm welcome from Mad-Eye in the form of a number of jail-time-enabling charms. As Severus refrained from throwing deadly hexes toward Mad-Eye, and only used his Protego Vitamaxima, he snapped, "Mad-Eye, if there is ever some sort of official entitlement that proclaims that you can check on everyone, instead of others throwing all these hexes on you, please do enlighten me."

"Ha, speaking more and more like a Malfoy." Mad-Eye's magical eye jumped like crazy, and he spat, "Obtaining some important message from Grindelwald within twenty-four hours of imprisonment, am I to believe that?"

Severus refuted with a smug smile, "Mad-Eye, I know it is hard for you to absorb the harsh reality that, with Lucius' help, I have bribed out more useful information in one day than you did in one year. As the saying goes, you can't teach an old dog-"

Before Severus could finish his sentence, the Boy-Who-Lived interjected: "Professor Snape, Mr. Moody, could you please check on each other's identity, and make sure that neither of you is under any sort of mind-controlling magic? I mean, you use the same spell on each other, one spell by another, no more, no less."

Both Severus and Mad-Eye growled, and followed the Boy-Who-Lived's instructions.

Just as Mad-Eye was finally done with Severus, and claimed that there were several spells that he hadn't used on the Malfoy brat yet, the fireplace lit up again.

Madam Bones and the handcuffed Lucius stepped out of the flames.

While Mad-Eye was busy probing Lucius with all sorts of spells and magical devices, the blond man provided more things for Mad-Eye to check on: "Good afternoon, Lord Potter, Lady Granger, Severus, and Draco, my dearest son. When I visited Gellert Grindelwald this morning, he had provided me with proper wizarding garments to replace the ugly uniform provided by Nurmengard. Though I have not found any hidden message on the garments, I have worn them back here for all of you to check on. And Mr. Moody, although you might have the unfortunate instinct to just burn everything, I do need to remind you that Grindelwald is perhaps expecting me to wear something proper when I see him next time. They are all in the pouch Madam Bones brought here."

"Grindelwald's expectation, you say?" Mad-Eye jabbed a funny looking stick into Lucius's chest so hard that the blond winced, "Fantastic speed at finding a new lord."

"I can speak Parseltongue, so my loyalty is verifiable." Lucius sneered. "On the other hand, what evidence can you provide to prove your loyalty? How am I to know that _you_ are not working for Grindelwald or anyone else?"

Observing the fire-seething Mad-Eye, Severus suddenly felt their petty squabbles were quite pathetic. _If any of us here wields real power, none of this would ever happen._

With renewed determination to become all-powerful, the black-haired man rolled his eyes, and started to apply privacy and security charms around them, for he knew Mad-Eye wouldn't even let him sneeze in the general direction of the garments provided by Grindelwald before he had tested them, so for the sake of efficiency, Severus didn't try.

After the old Auror finally ran out of his tricks, and nothing abnormal was found, the real conference began.

With the memory Lucius provided, and the large Pensieve brought here by Madam Bones, they took turns and watched the entire meeting between Lucius and Grindelwald.

Severus watched as the Boy-Who-Lived and the Girl-Who-Revived put their heads into the Pensieve first, and tried to read Lucius' face. Unfortunately, the most useful expression on blond man's face was only his bitter-sweet smiles towards his son.

A while later, the Boy-Who-Lived raised his head from the Pensieve, and frowned. "Mr. Malfoy, you presented yourself as - err, I guess we can discuss that part later. More importantly, Grindelwald indeed considers Britain as his own playground; this is both good news and bad news. And now, he might think that we have means to communicate with Dumbledore, which can be good, in a while. And the last part... Err, Mr. Malfoy, did you take a look at the contents?"

"Yes, I have also provided that memory to Madam Bones." The blond man answered.

The Girl-Who-Revived was also frowning, and Severus could see a sense of unease on her face.

Severus wondered what the latter memory would be, and put his head down into the Pensieve together with his godson.

Lucius' memory started when he was escorted into Grindelwald's cell.

Severus gazed around in Grindelwald's cell, and was silently amazed by the level of privilege the former dark lord enjoyed in Nurmengard: _The lords and ladies in America and the comrades in Russia do value Grindelwald's mind a lot. Hmm, I heard the American and Russian Muggles did something similar to Nazi Muggle scientists as well. I need to go back at the Muggle newspaper I read before - if my memory is correct, the Nazi scientists were not even imprisoned. Should I congratulate ourselves for having higher moral standards than the Muggles?_

However, there was something else that caught Severus' eyes as well: Draco flinched a bit upon seeing his Father in handcuffs and in ugly prison uniform.

Severus sighed inwardly: _The boy will get used to it. As for the pain he is suffering, well, I am hardly someone to give advice on that subject…_

As Severus and Draco followed Lucius into Grindelwald's comfortable guest room, Severus patted on Draco's shoulder.

The blond boy smiled bitterly, "I just hope Father can have something similar."

Severus supposed it was highly unlikely that Lucius would become someone as powerful as Grindelwald, and Potter would hardly have the impetus to reward an ex-Death Eater with such luxuries. The black-haired man stated matter-of-factly, "Then either you or I need to be a powerful lord."

Draco avoided his eyes from Lucius as the man changed his clothes. The boy bit his lips, and nodded.

When Lucius exited the guest room, Severus and Draco followed him back to Grindelwald's living room, and observed the conversation between Grindelwald and Lucius.

As Lucius established himself as some sort of special envoy from Great Britain to Nurmengard, Severus almost congratulated Lucius on his achievement.

-_Oh, this is why Lucius doesn't need to approach Grindelwald during the out-of-cell time slots, and gets there so fast. Once others consider him as such, the Americans would probably arrange things for him. And by coming back to Great Britain so fast, Lucius is confirming his role in front of every pair of interested eyes. What a sly snake!_

When Grindelwald guessed that the so-called sacrificial ritual was actually an Unbreakable Vow from the little information he had, Severus' eyes almost bulged out: _In the name of Atlantis, how did_ _he managed that? Is this the level of intuition required to become a powerful lord?_

Severus and Draco changed uneasy glances, as neither of them knew how to outsmart this very intelligent dark lord.

Then, Severus saw Lord Grindelwald had entered some sort of deep thinking mode. Severus felt that he had seen this sort of thing - somewhere.

-_Don't tell me Grindelwald worked out a plausible ritual to explain everything from an Unbreakable Vow! This is…_

Severus then had a feeling that he had recently been working on something quite similar to an Unbreakable Vow - which was…

Severus hated it when his memory became blurry, but a quick glance at Draco told him what he had worked on for more than a week: house-elves, and the rules governing them.

Severus' mind was so intent on this matter that he missed what Lucius indicated later, and how Grindelwald dismissed Lucius with a standard welcome package.

When Severus pulled his head out from the Pensieve, he heard the Potter boy said in bewilderment: "You can't swear that you know other's password, can you? I mean, how could an Unbreakable Vow possibly explain things in Grindelwald's head?"

Mad-Eye scoffed, "I've known idiots who took Unbreakable Vows, stating that they would do something they didn't possess the capability to do, and they just died from the Vow."

"Yeah, I know it wouldn't be that easy to cheat." The Boy-Who-Lived said. "Mr. Moody, you can enter the Pensieve now, and see what you can find."

While they were enjoying the absence of the roaring old Auror who wasn't sharp in powerful wizardry anyway, Severus said, "Mr. Potter, I guess Unbreakable Vows do bear resemblance to what you instructed me to work on for more than a week."

"You mean -" The Boy-Who-Lived was clearly sharp enough on this matter. "Oh, yeah."

The Girl-Who-Revived, and - to Severus's delight - his godson, also showed apprehension.

It seemed like Harry Potter wanted to say something, but he closed his mouth, and gave Granger a look.

From Potter's reactions, Severus knew there had to be something there, along the lines of imposing a rule on oneself, and that onto other magical creatures.

-_Or even onto the world, such as the Interdict of Merlin. Hmm, I wonder what Merlin sacrificed when he made that Interdict._

When Severus was working on how to make an Interdict stand, an unpleasant interruption named Mad-Eye exited the Pensieve, roaring that Lucius was by no means an envoy, and began to list out reasons why this might be a plot by either Lucius or Grindelwald to end the world.

Severus rubbed his temples, "Mad-Eye, can we take a look at Grindelwald's welcome package first?"

"You're still a blood purist as the day you joint the Death Eaters, aren't you?" Mad-Eye sneered. "Admiring the Malfoys for their blood, right?"

Severus then remembered Grindelwald might have mentioned something such as "blood purity". To hide his forgetfulness, Severus rolled his eyes, "We do need to look at it, in case he left some message there."

"Err, can Hermione and I take a look at what's in there first?" The Boy-Who-Lived asked, "And then we will decide who's the proper audience."

Severus nodded, while searching Lucius' face. To Severus' slight surprise, Lucius gave him a bitter smile in response.

-_Lucius doesn't seem to be too happy about the welcome package. Why is that? And since Grindelwald called it "standard welcome package", I should be able to find it elsewhere as well. If the Ministry of Magic in Ukraine runs similarly as our respected Ministry, I can probably figure something out from there._

When Potter and Granger stood up from the Pensieve, both of them held a blank face. However, the Girl-Who-Revived, who wasn't as good as hiding her emotions as the Boy-Who-Lived, had a sense of shock and disgust in her. Severus supposed, they probably saw some results from certain inhuman experiments, and they probably didn't like the conclusion much, either.

-_And the boy might be up to something as well._

Severus remembered the infamous Nazi mating experiments, and guessed that it might be something of such nature.

-_I wonder what the result is, that neither Lucius nor the Boy-Who-Lived likes it. _

Severus asked, "Should any of us take a look at it, Mr. Potter?"

The Boy-Who-Lived's face twitched in pain as he slowly said, "Professor Snape, you alone can see it. And, would you gather information on whether some of the parts have been applied and/or improved in other places of the world? You would know what I am referring to when you see it."

Severus gave the Potter boy a strange look, nodded, entered the Pensieve, and left unpleasant sounds from Mad-Eye behind.

This time, Lucius was in his small single cell, laying down one piece of paper by another on the floor. Lucius was clearly preparing the memory to be watched by others.

-_What a considerate snake!_

Severus commented silently, and bent over to see the contents of the welcome package. He was instantaneously absorbed by the contents.

The title of the welcome package was _Eugenics for the Benefits of Wizarding Society_.

Severus had heard the word "eugenics" used alongside with the words such as "sterilization", "witch", and "freak", by none other than his own abusive Muggle father Tobias Snape in several of the many arguments he had with Eileen Snape. Severus supposed, "eugenics" might mean that people with certain inheritable traits shouldn't reproduce, or something of sorts.

The first chapter of the package discussed the magical inheritance of various types of couples.

It stated that more than 98% of children pureblood (defined as anyone with all wizarding ancestors for at least four generations) couples were magical. As for the pureblood witches who gave births to squib children, with the approval from their husbands who were probably eager to wash the stain of squib kids from themselves, or who had already suspected something, interrogators had subjected the witches to Veritaserum and Legilimens. About 50% percent of these witches or their ancestors were found guilty for crimes such as "contamination of the magical blood", and "forgery of superior blood status". Grindelwald had personally examined some of the pureblood witches and their living parents and grandparents who were cleared from all charges, and also of that of their husbands', and he had to admit that for all children born to pureblood couples with impeccable records, about 1% of them might be squibs. Severus thought, the numbers basically fitted the numbers from the pureblood families he knew.

Then, it examined the probability of wizarding children born by Muggleborn couples. With the potential infidelity problem removed, about 92% of the kids were magical, 7% were squibs, and 1% were Muggles. These numbers also made sense to Severus - Lucius and other blood purists were not complete idiots, and they actually had some numbers and examples to support their belief. And judging from here, with Severus' limited knowledge on Muggle genetics, the Boy-Who-Lived's previous idea on magical inheritance could safely go down the drainage.

Things got really interesting as pureblood-Muggle couples were examined. It showed that only 7% of the children with pureblood wizarding fathers and Muggle mothers were magical, while about 35% of the kids born to pureblood witches and Muggle fathers were magical. According to the little Muggle genetics Severus knew, this indicated that the magical inheritance was partially linked to the sex chromosome - somewhat similar to that of hemophilia. However, registration records showed that kids conceived out of wedlock in wizarding father-Muggle mother pairs had a much lower probability to be magical (~5%) than the ones born in wedlock (~15%); while in the case of witch mother-Muggle father pairs, the differences were much smaller. These statistics initially led Grindelwald's researchers to doubt whether marriage had some magical impact on magical inheritance, yet further examination showed that children conceived and born in magical environment had a much higher probability to be magical than those in Muggle environments. In the case for witch mother-Muggle father, if the witches were in strong magical environments - such as in whole-wizarding villages or in old magical houses - the whole time, the probability of giving births to magical children could go up to about 50%, yet if the witches chose to follow their Muggle partners into non-magical environments, the chances went down to about 30%. Then, the differences in numbers between males and females made a lot of senses, for the bodies of witches were obviously a much more magical environment than the mere close presence of wizards. Severus guessed, that he - and on a second thought, the Dark Lord - were among the lucky 30%.

In the case of squib couples, the statistics also showed that the environment that the children were conceived and born could have a significant effect on the probability of wizarding children. For squibs living in magical environments, the chances were about 22% - fitting the Boy-Who-Lived's data quite well, yet for those living in non-magical neighbourhoods, the probability dropped to only 8%.

As for other types of couples, such as halfblood, half-blood-squib and pureblood-squib couples, the numbers could all be explained by the combination of blood purity and environment.

From the numbers in the first chapter, it seemed that blood purists had their points. However, the second chapter showed that blood purity also came with some huge disadvantages: the decrease in fertility rates, and the increased probabilities for deformity, insanity, and homosexuality.

The number showed that in the era when an average Muggle female gave births to seven and more kids during their lifetime, squib couples had 3.1 kids, halfblood couples had 2.1 children, while the average number of children for pureblood couples was only 1.4.

As for insanity and deformity, Severus guessed he needed little data from Grindelwald to confirm that: Mad-Eye Moody was obviously paranoid, Grindelwald was cruel, the Blacks and Gaunts were well-known for their fervent pursuit of blood purity and their madness, the Potters were near-sighted, and the Crabbes and Goyles were obese. As for the Malfoys, unless you called their white blond hair a deformity, they were a lucky lot, except that they usually only had one male heir for the past one thousand year. However, Severus did hear that the Malfoys had secretly married halfblood witches, and altered the records.

Moreover, Severus did doubt that whether it was too much of a coincidence that both Dumbledore and Grindelwald were gay. The Grindelwalds were a well-known pureblood family; as for Albus, Severus didn't know much about Albus' mother, but the Dumbledores were an old wizarding family living in Godric's Hollow for hundreds of years. Also, for a long time, Severus had doubted whether Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew were sleeping together.

From the statistics, it didn't take a genius to predict that without the constant introduction of Muggle blood into the wizarding world, wizards and witches would die out due to infertility, madness, and deformity sooner or later.

As a matter of fact, these data also explained why the percentage of wizards were always limited even in societies that considered wizarding folks as their leaders. And even for the magical creatures that could interbreed with their non-magical counterparts, the magical ones were never dominant in their numbers.

The following chapters discussed Grindelwald's solutions to the problems.

One of them was to encourage his men to marry pureblood witches, and to have casual relationships with squib and Muggle females in magical environments. The pregnant squib or Muggle women were then taken care of by some special program. Magical children born in this way were registered as half-bloods, and adopted by the many infertile magical couples; as for the squib kids born in this manner, they were handed to Grindelwald's Muggle allies' specialized camps.

Another approach employed by Grindelwald was to experiment various methods to increase the fertility rates in pureblood couples, and to increase the probability of magical births. Some methods were quite useful and harmless - Severus had recognized the recipe of a potion treating male infertility, a very similar one of which was supposedly invented by one of the American Lords in the 1950s. They also had some early experiments of cauldron babies, way earlier than the Muggles invented test tube babies. Some were much more sinister, such as a ritual that ensured the pregnant squibs and Muggles would give births of magical children. From the horrific death rates during the ritual, Severus guessed that the primary function of this ritual was to kill anyone who was not pregnant with a magical child.

Severus supposed, this was what the Boy-Who-Lived had referred to as "some of the parts have been applied and/or improved". Harry Potter probably wanted everyone to be magical in the future, yet it would be impossible unless there was some breakthrough in the magical fertility problem.

Severus sighed, and pulled his head out of the Pensieve.

As Severus was standing up, he sized the situation of the world outside the Pensieve. It seemed that Mad-Eye had kept speculating Grindelwald's evil plots.

"As I said before, nobody should ever take the damn 'standard welcome package'. Albus never did!" The old Auror roared, "I've heard about what's in it: how to kill every female who isn't pregnant with a magical child and stuff. Suits your appetite, doesn't it, Malfoy?"

Lucius rolled his eyes, "Grindelwald and his followers are all cruel - we all agree on that. Can we move on to something useful? Such as, how we should respond to Grindelwald, if we still want to continue our pretenses that we can establish some type of communications with Dumbledore?"

Mad-Eye spat, "You pretended, not 'we'!"

The Boy-Who-Lived took this chance to eye Severus, and Severus responded with a quick nod. Before Mad-Eye could issue more protests, the Potter boy said, "What Mr. Malfoy did is fine for the time being. However, we do need a long term solution, or something that could work for at least the next five years."

From the "five years" remark, Severus estimated that Harry Potter planned to become all-powerful by the age of eighteen, when regular students graduated from Hogwarts, and when Muggles were considered adults.

Severus didn't know anyone who had gained that level of power that young. The Dark Lord was an exceptional wizard who perhaps gained much ancient knowledge somewhere, yet his magic only reached that level perhaps in his late thirties or early forties. According to what Mad-Eye digged up for the story "Quirrell" told in class, soon after the Muggle martial arts school where "David Monroe" had learned much from was slaughtered in 1958, a really powerful Japanese lord named Fujimoto had chased down a relatively powerful dark lord, and almost killed him. The dark wizard only escaped with the sudden increase of luck. Considering the fact that Lord Fujimoto died a mysterious death nine years later, Severus assumed that the Dark Lord had failed in his first fight with Lord Fujimoto, and only gained the ability to assassinate the aged Japanese lord during these nine years. Although Severus didn't think he himself would be able to kill a powerful lord when he turned forty, this story did mean even Tom Riddle's power needed time to develop.

-_And the Boy-Who-Lived wants to become all-powerful at the age of eighteen! I'd say Draco is more powerful than an averaged fourth year student, while Potter and Granger might be somewhere near the level of an average fifth year student. Potter is quite exceptional for his age, - but to match the power level of Albus within five years, how is that even possible? _

From the rituals the Dark Lord used to make Granger hard to kill, Severus gathered that it wasn't too hard to gain physical strength and agility.

-_Can this also be used to gain magic? Can you sacrifice a dragon and gain its magic? Or even, can you sacrifice powerful wizarding lords and ladies and gain the magic from that? _

-_Nah, even if it is possible, it would be against Potter's ethics to kill people for their magic. But dragons are probably OK to be sacrificed._

-_However, we don't know if sacrificing dragons have some unwelcomed side effects. Besides, though dragons are more powerful than most ordinary folks including myself, they are not as powerful as Albus or the Dark Lord. _

-_If Potter wants the magical power of dragons, why five years? I suppose Mad-Eye and I can work out the details on how to sacrifice a dragon within a week or so._

As Severus was deep in his own thought, others already had several rounds of discussions on how to stall the rest of the world - plus Voldemort - from organizing an instant attack.

Lucius said, "Just as Lord Potter said, if Riddle hasn't figured out how he failed last time, he probably wouldn't be too eager to be the first serious attacker. However, what would happen if Riddle instigate other powerful wizards and witches in the world, and let them rob the Stone first, and then he will rob it from others later? With Riddle doing the persuasion, I am sure that some really powerful lords and ladies would try."

The boy who resembled Albus so much closed his eyes for a while, and then said, "Mr. Malfoy, this scenario is a logical response for - for some other dark wizards, and we do need to keep an eye on this possibility. However, for Tom Riddle, he might prefer a solo play." Harry Potter swallowed hard. "He might try to gain more power, either by learning Muggle science, or by -"

The Boy-Who-Lived glanced at Lucius, and then at Severus.

And Severus understood. Judging from Lucius' expressions, the blond man also understood.

Draco looked at his ashen faced Father, and then at his black faced Godfather. The blond boy drew in a breath, and his body tensed up.

Mad-Eye's no-longer-scarred face turned a shade whiter, and he snarled, "Damn it! I need to check on every single soul in Nurmengard!"

Lucius responded almost automatically, though his tone lost his usual sarcasm. "Be careful, some of them might be American or Russian spies. Don't cause a world war with your normal methods."

Severus pondered, and then said: "And I will look for similar signs in former Soviet states - I suppose, both in the Muggle world and the magical one. I heard there was an exodus of Muggle scientists since the Soviet Union collapsed, maybe I should look for recently disappeared distinguished Muggle scientists."

The Boy-Who-Lived nodded gravely. "Mr. Malfoy, could you tell Grindelwald that, according to the holder of Line of Merlin Unbroken's understanding of Tom Riddle, the reappeared Riddle might approach him for his biggest secret? And, err, the holder of Line of Merlin Unbroken has found the welcome package - no, the existence of the welcome package - morally unacceptable."

Then, Mad-Eye, Bones, Potter, Granger, Lucius, and Severus, who had known Albus Dumbledore from various perspectives, discussed the wording of the message, and how to make it more Albus-ish.

By six o'clock, they had agreed on the message to be delivered to Grindelwald and the rest of the world, and it was time for Lucius to be time-turned and to give testimony in the DMLE. Before the man was taken way, he looked at the Boy-Who-Lived and the Girl-Who-Revived imploringly: "Lord Potter, Lady Granger, can I spend some private time with my friend and family?"

Harry Potter's mask cracked a bit as he glanced Draco, and Hermione Granger seemed a bit uneasy.

Severus knew what Lucius was playing at - even if Severus didn't, Mad-Eye had already called it out. "You manipulative snake deserves every part of this! Don't think that you can play the pity card-"

The Boy-Who-Lived interjected, "Mr. Malfoy, you can have an hour."

After some promises in Parseltongue from both Lucius and Severus, Potter, Granger, Bones, and Mad-Eye (reluctantly, and with quite a few nudges from the Boy-Who-Lived) left the circle of privacy.

As they were waiting for Narcissa, Severus began to check what interesting spells and magical items Mad-Eye had left in this circle. The black-haired man wanted to keep himself busy, for he didn't want to consider the possibility that this might be the last time he saw Malfoy Sr. - unless he made some real breakthroughs in reviving people without their heads.

Severus knew that he was being manipulated by Lucius, but, by the time Narcissa came, he still couldn't help himself and promised: "Draco, Narcissa, don't worry too much. If anything happens, I will figure out a way to bring Lucius back, no matter what. _I sspoke truth_."

The three Malfoys all looked at Severus with great gratitude. Lucius walked up to Severus and gave him a hug. "My dearest Severus, my brother and my friend, you be careful yourself. If anything happens, well, you might have to wait for a while, but I shall bring you back as well. _I sspoke truth_"

"_Godfather, me too_." The younger blond also promised.

Severus knew Lucius was a bastard - Draco might be a better person, but still a little bastard. However, the black-haired man still felt the empty hole in him ever since Albus' disappearance was being filled.

-_Oh, damn Malfoys!_


	41. Chapter 41 Nurmengard, GG-Alexander

I would like to thank my beta, Kuilin.

* * *

Chapter 41.

Nurmengard, Part IV, Gellert Grindelwald: Alexander Dimitrov

1:24 pm, July 17th, 1993

As the heavy iron gate was closed behind the British envoy, and food disappeared from the dining table, Gellert Grindelwald pondered on the message the younger blond delivered to him.

According to Lucius, the biggest threat for Great Britain ever since Grindelwald himself, one Tom Riddle, was probably in Nurmengard, seeking Lord Grindelwald's biggest secret.

Well, Grindelwald wasn't too surprised about this news - the Americans, the Russians, and a large number of self-motivated dark wizards had been trying to find out about his real secret for the past fifty years.

-_And they have tried, oh, they have tried. Brain, money, influence, promises about freedom, threats, potion, spells, rituals, torture, abduction... You name it. _

What was a little bit surprise for Grindelwald was what took so long for this Tom Riddle to personally try his hands in Nurmengard.

-_The new prison guard, Alexander Dimitrov, probably is Tom Riddle. The senses of darkness and danger smell right. I wonder if this new boy would try something new. _

-_As for the Brits sending me this message… Do they want me to kill off Tom Riddle as a ticket to the Mirror and the Stone?_

Grindelwald briefly closed his eyes, and realized one thing: _either they have no way to contact Albus, or they are not obeying Albus' orders. _

-_Albus believed in the "destiny-enemy" crap. Albus wouldn't let a dark lord kill another. They are running this show all by themselves._

Anger roared its way through Grindelwald's entire body; he wanted to tear the smug younger blond and every single Brit into pieces. However, Lord Grindelwald controlled himself soon enough.

-_If Albus is really there to control everything, with his level of moral high grounds, he would never let me lay my hands on the Mirror and the Stone. Albus' absence is actually to my advantage._

-_Yes, I shall study the Mirror and the Stone first, and then grant every single Brit a slow and painful death, starting with Lucius Malfoy, his precious wife, and his son._

Grindelwald summoned his communication coin, and started the long list of names that he needed to contact, starting with a signal to Lord Isaac Yodov - who was formerly Comrade Isaac Yodov: "I think I know the real reason that you lot haven't and shouldn't act the way you want."

-_Damn Brits, you shall get it your way for a while, but Lord Grindelwald shall get back at you. _

* * *

2:52 pm, July 17th, 1993 (Central Time)

Somewhere near the border line between the United States and Canada, a brown-haired man gave a jet black altar a last check, and then let it sink into the vast and almost endless wheatfield. Wearing a bored and disinterested expression the whole time, the man acted as if there was nothing surprising or taxing about erecting and burying such a magical wonder in a few hours in a Muggle farm in North Dakota.


	42. Chapter 42 Nurmengard Interlude Ukraine

I would like to thank my beta, Kuilin.

* * *

Chapter 42.

Nurmengard, Interlude, Leonid Nikolayevich Smirnov

8:10 am, July 19th, 1993 (Kiev Time)

In a small country villa outside of Kiev, Leonid Nikolayevich Smirnov twitched uncomfortably in the single person couch, his eyes jumped from furniture to furniture in the living room, and decidedly avoiding the direction of the fireplace. He swallowed down hard, regretting his decision to join the group of wizards who profited from selling Soviet Union's secret - an instant death might be easier than his current status, being the weakest and most dispensable member of the group, and assigned with the most dangerous task, which was to face the dangerous buyers, and to tell the secrets of powerful wizardry. Smirnov had no idea whether he would be tortured this time, or maybe either the buyers or the other wizards in the group might kill him afterwards.

Smirnov knew that ever since Soviet Union collapsed, every sensible country in the world, and a lot of intelligent self-aspiring wizards who wanted to walk the walks of great wizards, had tried their hands in this land. The United States had gotten the cream of the crop - they had directly recruited the best magical researchers, and two or three former Comrades (with a capital "C") were rumored to have been bought by the Americans. As for nations not as attractive as the United States, or individuals with deep pockets, buying secrets was a reasonable thing to do.

In most other countries, secrets of powerful wizardry were only known to powerful wizards. However, in the former Soviet Union, things had been a little different.

Long before the Great October Socialist Revolution in 1917, powerful Russian wizarding lords and ladies had a tradition to be heavily involved in Muggle politics. Lord Grigori Rasputin, the most powerful Russian wizarding lord at that time, had taken this tradition to an extreme: he had publically served as a healer and a top counselor in the Tsar's court, and had involved heavily with Muggle politics. Some of his advice, such as "don't go to war with Germany", was quite perceptive and sensible in hindsight; however, for the most part, he just enjoyed himself too much with alcohol and females (Muggles, witches, and magical creatures alike), gave irrational advice, and led the country into deeper and deeper disaster. Some magical historians had suspected that he was a true seer - after his attempts to prevent Russia from participating in World War I had failed, Lord Rasputin had foreseen the fall of the Romanov Dynasty and his own demise, and had thus lived every day as his last day on Earth. Lord Rasputin's acts had earned him well-deserved hatred from Muggle serfs to Muggle nobility, and from wizards to goblins. By the end of 1916, both Muggle aristocracy and other wizarding lords couldn't suffer him anymore, so they ganged up and assassinated him. It was said that before his assassination, Lord Rasputin had written to the Tsar, stating that in case he arrived at Serbia safely, then the Tsar had nothing to worry about; if he was killed by the commoners, the Romanov Dynasty might still have a few years; if he was killed by the nobles, then the Dynasty only had three months, and the Tsar's family had at most two years to live. The fates of the Romanovs soon proved Lord Rasputin's Prophecy, that after he was assassinated in December, 1916, the February Revolution in 1917 overthrew the Romanov Dynasty, and the Tsar's entire family were executed by the communists in July, 1918.

After Lord Rasputin's infamous example, the Comrades in Soviet Union chose to take a less conspicuous position in Muggle politics, yet they were still heavily involved in almost everything.

Comrade Mikhail Andreyevich Shakhov, the most powerful Russian wizard after Lord Rasputin, was an ardent believer of communism. As a contrast to Lord Rasputin, Comrade Mikhail Andreyevich (as he liked himself to be called) led an almost impeccable personal life - much more of a "saint" than "Father Grigori" ever was. Though Comrade Mikhail Andreyevich had wielded extraordinary power and influence in both the Muggle and wizarding Russian for more than sixty years, he lived an almost saintly life: mild, polite and modest toward his comrades, always helping out young wizards in need with his own money, only having an apartment in Moscow and a villa outside Moscow that was not much larger than the one Smirnov was currently in, and leaving behind a heritage less than a year's wage of a common worker when he passed away in 1982. Over the years, countless wizards had seen him and his wife joining the long lines in front of regular shops, waiting to buy food and supplies. According to the few times that Smirnov met Comrade Mikhail Andreyevich, Smirnov felt the aged wizard was quite sincere in his way. Not even his political enemies could accuse him of nepotism, avaricious, adultery, or even the most common sin for Russian males, alcoholism.

As for Comrade Mikhail Andreyevich's political life, that was a complete other matter. He was known to be as ruthless as winter in Russian toward the "Enemies of Soviet Union" - be them White Russian Army, Trotskyists, Grindelwald's Army, or political dissidents. After killing and ousting powerful wizards and witches who supported the White Army, Comrade Mikhail Andreyevich had single-handedly restructured Russian wizarding society. One of the result was that the majority of the wizarding working population had become members of Cheka, which was the predecessor of KGB and GRU.

Many wizards in the Soviet Union admired the level of freedom wizards in other countries enjoyed, and resented Comrade Mikhail Andreyevich for this reason. However, being a member of the KGB had suited Smirnov just fine - he wasn't much of a wizard anyway, and he just loved the bureaucracy and paper-pushing in the much larger Muggle government.

Smirnov's talent in bureaucracy, officialese, flattery, and choosing the right side - instead of his weak magic and average-level intelligence - had promoted him fast on the ladders of the KGB. By 47 years old, Smirnov had made himself a colonel, and had a clearance level that ranked just below the Comrades with a capital "C". Though Smirnov could hardly actually practise or even understand most of the secrets he had access to, they still made him feel quite good about himself.

Then, there came the biggest blow in Smirnov's professional and personal life: the collapse of Soviet Union. Although Smirnov, like more than 70% of Russian people, had voted to keep the Soviet Union, the Muggle politicians and a few Comrades on the top of the ladder still managed to dismantle the largest country in the world against people's will.

In December 1991, for the first time, Smirnov realized how powerless he was without the protection of the system: one of Lord Isaac Yodov's students, a relatively powerful witch whom he used to boss around for various official trivialities, kicked him out from the newly founded Ministry of Magic without a word.

With his savings going down fast in the hyperinflation that followed the collapse of Soviet Union, Smirnov really missed Comrade Mikhail Andreyevich: if the power Comrade hadn't died of old age in 1982, Soviet Union probably wouldn't have collapsed. According to rumors, Comrade Mikhail Andreyevich had helped the Muggle politicians in their effort to oust Khrushchev. Therefore, Comrade Mikhail Andreyevich might just oust Yeltsin, Gorbachev and their lot as well.

Without any useful skills in the new world, Smirnov doubted whether he and his family could survive the winter in 1992. Therefore, when the group of wizards who sold top magical secrets of the great country to anyone with a deep pocket approached Smirnov, he didn't have much of a choice (and they wouldn't give him any). Smirnov had everything they desired: dispensable, easily manageable, weak in magic, three kids to be threatened with, and a suitable identity to convince the buyers the secrets were authentic.

Smirnov sighed, and dearly hoped that the two wizards who claimed that they were from Canada wouldn't kill him afterwards; or if they try, the relatively powerful wizards in the group would promptly come and help.

The fireplace suddenly flared up, and two blurry figures wearing black robes walked out from the green flames.

As both of them walked toward the sofa, one of the figures spoke with a distorted sound: "Good morning, Mr. Smirnov. Let's begin by what you learned after you graduated Koldovstoretz Magical School."

Obviously, neither of those two even considered the courtesy as giving pseudonyms of themselves to a nobody such as Smirnov.

If the KGB school Smirnov attended after Koldovstroretz had forced him to learn one thing, that would be foreign languages - another reason why the group chose him to face the buyers.

Smirnov swallowed, and nervously replied in English with some Russian accent, "My name is Leonid Nikolayevich Smirnov. After Koldovstroretz, I received two years of education in Shakhov Vocational School, which actually taught us wizards things about the KGB and GRU. After that, I joined the KGB. Ever since my graduation, I worked in the Administrative and Regulatory Department of the Twenty-third Chief Directorate - or, you can call it the Secretive Magical Chief Directorate. My main responsibility was on the regulatory authorizations of magical researches. I had a rank of colonel, with a Clearance Level 3."

"I heard, every Russian wizard had to learn how to serve the Muggle government?" The figure on the left asked. Even the distortion charm he or she applied on his sound couldn't mask his incredulity.

"Yes." Smirnov swallowed. "We also had to swear to be loyal to Soviet Union, and never reveal its secrets. - No, we didn't take the Unbreakable Vow, because it was impossible to find enough wizards to sacrifice their magic to make the Vow stand for everyone. Comrade Mikhail Andreyevich, I mean, Comrade Mikhail Andreyevich Shakhov, had made a Hammer. The Hammer had similar functions to the Goblet of Fire, or maybe it was a little weaker. We just needed to write down our oath, and punch the parchment with the Hammer to make our oath stand. And, and, I can only release the secrets to you now, because -"

Smirnov choked a bit as he said the next sentence: "Because Soviet Union doesn't exist anymore."

Although this probably wasn't the first time Smirnov had said it, he was still submerged by a wave of sadness. He missed the decent job, the generous salary, the government car, the decent apartment in Moscow, his villa outside Moscow, government-paid heating bills, the government-paid vacations to the beaches by Black Sea and to Yugoslavia, the privileges he had…

-_And what am I now? A foreigner in Kiev. Ukraine. Kiev, for the sake of Merlin, the Holy Lady, or whoever! Kievan Rus, the very place the Slavic people originated. Isn't this ridiculous?_

Yes, Smirnov did miss the Soviet Union, and it was not only for monetary reasons.

However, the two "Canadians" obviously didn't care much about Smirnov's sentiments. Their interest was completely on another matter: "You claim that Shakhov had made a Hammer, that is similar to the Goblet of Fire. Do you know how it is made? Do you know the secrets of it?"

Smirnov shook his head: "No, it was beyond my clearance level. Only the Comrades with a capital 'C' know that."

"Hmm, interesting." The figure sitting on the left tapped his wand.

Smirnov almost screamed: "Don't torture me! You can use Legilimency on me, and look for it yourselves."

"Don't panic yet. Legilimency can wait for a while. Now go on." The figure on the left side demanded.

"What we learned from Koldovstroretz and Shakhov Vocational School was rather basic. There was nothing that was forbidden by the Interdict of Merlin. I have copies of my textbooks from Shakhov Vocational School here, you can take a look." Smirnov pointed to the stack of books beside him.

The figure on the right summoned the books, and began to check them for any hostile magic. When he or she was done, these two figures began to flip through the books.

The figure on the left exclaimed, "Ah, you Russians have measured the speed of travel by Floo, Apparition, and Portkey? Fascinating. And the travel time for all three methods is - what does it mean here?" The blurry figure pointed to something, and asked the figure on the right.

The figure on the right explained to his partner in several double blurred sentences.

-_Doesn't every modern wizard already know about this? It is so simple that even I remember it, "t = a+d/c", where t is the time used, a is a method specific constant, d is the distance between two points, and c is the speed of light. Is the one on the left from Canada, or is he or she from a cave?_

After a while, Smirnov heard the left figure said: "Have the Russian magical researchers measured the speed of travel by phoenix?"

Smirnov answered: "No, the only Russian witch who had a phoenix died in the war against Grindelwald, that was before our measurement instruments were accurate enough to do such measurements."

"Pity." The left one commented.

The right one asked: "Here, the textbook claimed that the absolute magic level of a wizard can be measured by the average random noise one induces while sleeping in a special room hooked with certain Muggle electronic devices. Can we get the design of the room and the electronic devices somewhere?"

Smirnov hoped that this would bring him some bonus from the group, and answered: "I don't have the design at hand, but we can surely give you one, for a proper price. As for the Muggle devices and magical materials needed, we can get them for you as well."

The right one replied: "Good. Since you Russians have used Muggle electronics to measure the amount of magic in a wizard, have you figured out why magic interferes with Muggle electronics?"

Smirnov finally heard a question that he knew from his work in KGB, and answered: "No, but some magical researchers have doubted that it was an artificial effect caused by some half-failed Interdict."

"Interdict? By who? What's the content of the Interdict?" The left one asked agitatedly.

The right one added: "What do you think you know, and how do you think you know it?"

Smirnov had a strange feeling about the right one's question. He had been trained to ask such questions in the KGB while interrogating suspects (though he had never actually interrogated anyone), and few wizards had asked such questions - not that he could remember much. He replied: "I learned the information from an internal seminar presented by one of our magical researchers, - I think he and his whole research group are in the United States now. He stated that extensive double-blind experiments had shown that the presence of strong magic in or around non-magical animals and Muggles had almost zero effect on any physiological parameters of the test subjects, or the sense orientation of non-magical migrational birds, magic most likely doesn't have any effect on the electrochemical reactions, signaling of neurons, and, err, and things like that. It seemed that magic only affects manmade - OK, as well as goblins and other magical beings made - electronics. This can hardly be anything natural. Their conclusion was that most likely some powerful wizard in the beginning of the Second Industrial Revolution imposed this effect onto the world. You know, the whole 'development of technology or magic can destroy the world' thing, quite popular with the old-fashioned Brits, I heard. Anyway, if that was the aim of the one who imposed this on the world, his or her work was probably partially botched, for the Muggles still developed very powerful electronics and nuclear weapons."

The sound Smirnov heard became double-blurred again. After a while, the one on the right asked: "Has anyone figured out a way to mitigate the effects of magic on electronics?"

Smirnov answered: "Not to my knowledge. However, some have suspected that the effect is only limited to the Earth, or the surface of the Earth. I heard that according to some non-conclusive data, if they put some magical devices and some signal generating Muggle electronics together in a satellite, the signal received on the ground gets better as the satellite gets away from the ground. There are rumors that the Americans wanted to try this in their missions to the moon, but the first trial failed spectacularly, killing several astronauts, so neither they nor we have tried this with any manned mission - or any mission too important - again."

"Oh." The left one exclaimed, but the sound soon became blurred again.

Smirnov was never too keen on magic, but even he knew this meant that the Interdict of Merlin can be bypassed by going to the moon - that's what some magical researchers had claimed, anyway.

After a while, the figure on the right asked another question: "What do you know about very intelligent magical creatures, such as veelas, goblins, acromantulas, etc.?"

This was another question that Smirnov knew the answer from his work in KGB. "A lot of our researchers thought they are human beings with inheritable curses. Or, at least, a group of researchers managed to transfigure a quintaped to a sapient man, very violent, though. You know, when powerful wizards can transfigure stones to the body of human beings, but the transfigured thing was never intelligent. Therefore, the man-eating quintapeds must be intelligent on their own accord, and the rumor that the reason they are like this was a curse is probably true."

Then, there came another round of blurred sound.

The next question came as: "Polyjuice potion, does it change the brain structure of the drinker to that of the person whose hair is used?"

"Yes, and other internal organs as well." Smirnov replied, but he quickly added, "Grindelwald's people did this."

As one question lead to another, they finally asked Smirnov the ultimate question: "What is magic? Where does it come from?"

Smirnov had no idea where magic had come from, but he had some answers to the first question: "Before Gorbachev cut down our research funding, one of our research groups claimed to have some preliminary data to show that magic might be, err, wave-particle duality, - that's the phrase in English, - just like light. They applied for funding to construct instruments to verify their theory, but their funding application was denied. Now, the whole group are in the United States."

After some prolonged blurred sound, Smirnov heard the familiar incantation: "Legilimens."


	43. Chapter 43 Nurmengard, Hermione

I would like to thank my beta, Kuilin.

* * *

Chapter 43.

Nurmengard, Part V. Girl-Who-Revived

8:12 am, July 20th, 1993

8:12 am, the exact time that Mad-Eye concluded that the night-shift prison guard would start to leave the castle, and leaving the castle they did. A small door on the side of a large black solid iron door of the formidable magical castle was opened, and a group of prison guards began to file out in a row. The guards needed to walk a long way toward the only transportation area in a radius of five kilometers to be able to Apparate or Floo home.

In the meanwhile, Hermione and her bodyguards, including Mad-Eye Moody and two Auror trios, were being searched at the Visitor's Entrance nearby. Their presence, especially, that of the famous Girl-Who-Revived's, attracted much attention from the guards walking out from the small door near by.

Officially, Hermione was here to conduct an experimental treatment for the victims of dementor exposure. As a matter of fact, half of the goal for this trip laid in this brief moment of passing with the guards.

The girl radiating a sense of purity and innocence extended her magic to the fullest, preparing every moment for fight-or-flight.

Hermione knew, once she felt any resonance of magic, the plan was for her to flee as fast as possible, even though her true Protego Vitamaxima would probably work better than any defensive spells her bodyguards could cast. Harry and Hermione had tested, Protego Vitamaxima fueled with the true Patronus could block almost every hex or curse Severus and Mad-Eye could think of, and the most effective way to crack the true Protego Vitamaxima was to use brute physical force, such as a falling two-ton stone statue - something that Hermione could easily escape from with her agility. Of course, Harry had to ask Severus and Mad-Eye to erase each other's memory afterwards, for they wanted to keep the true power and weakness of Protego Vitamaxima a secret.

However, when all off-duty prison guards had left the gate, all Hermione felt was a general unpleasant aura from the formidable castle, and there was something that was unclean in the general direction of the prison guards - not that was anything surprising for so many people flocking to Grindelwald with unspeakable motives. There was no upcoming DOOM or warning.

-_So either I am not as sensitive a detector for Voldemort as Harry is, or Voldemort isn't in this group of off-duty prison guards._

After five minutes of security checks, the guards outside the Visitor's Entrance finally issued Hermione and her guards one-time passes, and let them go inside the first door, only to be checked again.

While Hermione was being prodded with various interesting magical items, she wondered if Grindelwald had intentionally misled them by providing a false identification of Voldemort as the new prison guard Alexander Dimitrov - or if Grindelwald was right, it was just that the little magic Harry put into her during her revival wasn't enough, so that she could only detect the true body of Voldemort, not enough to detect a disembodied soul.

Two days ago, Lucius reluctantly reported that Grindelwald demanded direct communications with persons with real power, instead of the "phony Bones" or the "crazy Eye", Grindelwald also claimed that he had spread the words that any harm done to the Girl-Who-Revived might bring catastrophe to the world, and he had offered a name that he suspected to be Voldemort.

As a matter of fact, Mad-Eye had already checked on the new prison guard Dimitrov, for anyone entering Nurmengard after Voldemort's reappearance was obviously a suspect. And Mad-Eye agreed that this seemingly likeable young chap was suspicious - not that Mad-Eye had a short list of people being suspicious.

The most accurate Voldemort-detector was obviously Harry, but the Boy-Who-Lived literally couldn't take any risks. Therefore, the Girl-Who-Revived had come in his place.

Originally, Harry had wanted both Severus and Mad-Eye to come with her, but Severus pointed out that they couldn't risk letting everyone know that the two most powerful wizards were both away from wherever the Stone was, or were both away from the Boy-Who-Lived.

Mad-Eye agreed with Severus' comment on principle, but he soon started a debate on who should go with Hermione: he didn't want the ex-Death Eater who made a run once given the chance to be alone with Harry, nor did he prefer the idea that Lucius' best friend would be given an opportunity to be near Lucius/Grindelwald/Voldemort. During Mad-Eye's endless inquisitions, Severus rolled his eyes, and scoffed: "Mad-Eye, is it so hard for you to admit the fact that I can verify what I say is true to my best judgement, while you can't?"

Before Mad-Eye and Severus could get into another argument, Harry had to interject and decided that since Mad-Eye was the one who was more familiar with Nurmengard, he should go with Hermione.

Hermione secretly suspected Harry might subconsciously prefer this arrangement because he wanted some quiet hours with Severus and the textbooks from Shakhov Vocational School the black-haired man got. To be honest, Hermione, too, was quite shocked and fascinated by the textbooks that resembled Muggle textbook in their structure and mode of thinking. She also wanted to spend some good reading hours with the textbooks and the half-blood wizard who could understand Russian. Unfortunately, they had a war to fight, and a world to save.

After both Severus and Mad-Eye had been asked to leave, Harry commented that the textbooks, the possible reason for magic to interfere with Muggle electronics, the possible limitation of Interdicts, and the suspect nature of magic were way more valuable than the pathetic war they were fighting, yet if they couldn't win in this war, no being would ever have any future.

Hermione agreed with Harry on principle, yet she couldn't help but to point out another pathetic matter: "Harry, I know the power game that you are playing with Severus and Mad-Eye, but the two most powerful followers of yours are not a good starting point for you to practice this game.. Their hostility toward each other is not only hurting our efficiency in every possible way, but it might also lead to our failure in the current war."

Harry had agreed, and he had promised to do something about it. Hermione dearly hoped that Harry's solution wouldn't be "I will become a God sooner".

As Hermione was led through the grim yard of Nurmengard toward the Healing and Consultation Center in the northeast corner, Hermione extended her senses again, trying to detect anything that might resonant with her magic, yet there was nothing of interest.

While Hermione was being checked again before she was allowed to enter the castle, she mentally rehearsed various scenarios for her upcoming meeting with Grindelwald.

When Lucius was taken by for "more testimony" two days ago, the snake animagus stated that he had a sense that Grindelwald might have developed some suspicion on their pretense that Albus Dumbledore was still around in some way or form. This had made things extremely tricky about the whole "direct communications with persons with real power" thing. If a dark lord locked in prison (no matter how well-connected that dark lord still was) could see that Madam Bones was not the real holder of Line of Merlin Unbroken, this meant a good portion of the other thirty-something top wizards in the world should be able to deduce this as well. Originally, they might think that Dumbledore was still behind everything, but overtime they might see the truth before any wizard on Harry's side could gain enough power to deter them all. And since Severus brought back the news that the former Comrades were heavily involved in Muggle politics, it was reasonable to believe that all the former Comrades knew about Muggle nuclear weapons - obviously, they had never actually used nuclear weapons, but that could be of the same reason that the Muggle nations had never used such weapons since the end of World War II. Therefore, even if Harry staged a show where he could cause a huge explosion at some remote location (possibly using transfigured antimatter) as Harry originally planned, the top wizards would only think that the British Ministry of Magic got their hands on nuclear weapons, instead of thinking that Harry was really powerful.

Therefore, in order to uphold the illusion of Dumbledore being around for as long as possible, they needed something to offer the ultimate authority on Albus Dumbledore - Gellert Grindelwald, who was definitely evil and sane at the same time.

Judging from Grindelwald's standard welcome package, the dark lord was quite sincere in his pursuit for wizards to rule over the Muggles, and he had clear plans for his empire: while purebloods were on the top of the hierarchy, half-bloods were useful administrators, Muggleborns served as lower-class officials, squibs (at least the females) were unpleasant but necessary supplements to offer wombs, and Muggles were the lowest of the ranks.

After reading the welcome package, neither of the two dark wizards on their side thought Grindelwald aimed at the annihilation of Muggles - at least, before Grindelwald figured out how to increase the fertility of purebloods. Harry agreed on Severus and Lucius' idea. This was of little moral comfort to Hermione, yet this did mean Grindelwald was sane and he could be pragmatic when needed.

The day before yesterday, their current Grindelwald "expert" on their side (since no one else was competing for this title), one Lucius Malfoy, suggested that he might have deduced part of the reason why Grindelwald started World War II. According to the books on Grindelwald and recent Muggle history that Lucius recently read like crazy, he found one coincidence: Grindelwald had been visiting France around 1916 to 1917, and he might have witnessed two of the most horrible battles in human history - Battle of Verdun and Battle of the Somme.

"I can imagine the shock Grindelwald experienced when he witnessed the true power of Muggle killing machines." The blond pureblood gulped, residual shock and horror still lingering in his grey-blue eyes, "When I read Muggle history books, I could hardly believe the descriptions. I wanted to find proof that the Muggles had exaggerated things, yet I found signs that the Muggles might softened things up when they recorded things down, probably because truth was more horrible. Lady Granger, Lord Potter, correct me if I am wrong, after reading the Muggle history books, I realized that the Muggles can bring danger not only to themselves, but also to us. The cannons depicted in the books can no doubtedly smash Protego wielded by most wizards - I doubt if five percent of adult wizards can survive when facing a cannon. Malfoy Manor may or may not survive if it becomes the target of an artillery regiment with a hundred cannons. - And how many did the Muggles utilized in Verdun and Somme? I am in no way an extraordinary wizard like Grindelwald, so I am sure that he could see the meaning of the things he witnessed firsthand."

Hermione wanted to point out that the Muggles had learned the lessons after World War II, and the Cold War had ended peacefully, yet she herself wasn't so confident in the probability that the next major conflict between Muggle countries would also end in a peaceful way - when there were only three data points, World War I, World War II, and the Cold War, who could say that the Cold War wasn't an outlier?

Lucius swallowed again as he said: "Grindelwald might have also witnessed something else: the death magic released by the massive death of Muggles. And somehow, he had devised a way to utilize this effect."

Harry sighed, looking increasingly like Dumbledore. "I can guess it from there. Grindelwald had an aim, and he had a way."

From Harry's explanation on Voldemort's mentality, Hermione also knew what Lucius was about to say: _just like Voldemort, Grindelwald considered the Muggles an existential threat to everyone on Earth, and he considered world domination as a way to save the world from destruction. And Grindelwald had figured out a plausible way to do that. This is - this is just what a sane dark lord wants to do. For what is worse, both of them might actually believe they were doing it for "the Greater Good"._

After all others had left, Harry sadly pointed out: "Hermione, I think Grindelwald might be more sane than You-Know-Who, or at least, he didn't fall into the trap where he enjoyed playing evil too much that he procrastinated on world domination. I guess, one comfort is, judging from Grindelwald's pretty much predictable moves - even by Lucius, he is probably less clever than You-Know-Who. Unfortunately for Grindelwald, actually, unfortunately for the entire world, the very act that Grindelwald tried to save the world from its destruction lead to the development of nuclear weapons, and pushed us one step nearer to the great cliff."

Hermione also sighed. "I suppose, pointing out that Grindelwald is possibly the biggest sinner for wizarding kind ever to his face isn't a good idea, for he might think who opposed him should be given that title, or he might regret he didn't kill all the Jews, including Albert Einstein, earlier."

Harry pulled out paper and pencil from his pouch, and said, "Let's begin by lining out all the possible things that might motivate Grindelwald, and then ask Lucius to evaluate them - he is the only dark pureblood wizard on our side anyway. First, Grindelwald most likely doesn't want the world to be destroyed. Second, Grindelwald wants to study the Stone and the Mirror, or the origin of magic - this desire is probably true as well. The first point has no conflict with the second either way. Possibly, Grindelwald doesn't want to learn the real secret of magic in a destroyed world, and he may think the true secret of magic can help him stop world destruction. Hmm."

Harry stopped, and fell deep into his own mind.

Hermione tried to concentrate on the current problem, but she couldn't help but to wonder what proposals Harry might raise afterwards. Usually, this mode of deep thinking lead to another possible way to destroy the world.

To Hermione's surprise and slight horror, Harry came out with a true bright smile. "Hermione, I have been stupid, or, I should say that I have fallen into the same trap as You-Know-Who did. Remember that I taught him to consider nice things for others? I did the same. If there is one place where people have the highest probability of surviving a nuclear war or most other methods that can destroy the world, that place is probably inside the Mirror. Being locked inside the Mirror is not only a punishment, it can also be a form of blessing in desperate times."

"Harry, that is BRILLIANT!" Hermione almost jumped from hearing this great idea. For more than one year, Hermione had felt the weight of the entire human race - no the weight of all sapient beings on Earth - on her shoulders, and now to know that everyone could be safe -

Then Hermione realized one thing: not everyone can be safe. There has to be someone staying outside the Mirror to release everyone when the conditions becomes safer. And that person has to be…

The Girl-Who-Revived saw the Boy-Who-Lived flinched a bit on a certain idea, or rather, a certain candidate. She volunteered: "Harry, don't worry. I have already accepted my destined path as a heroine, and since I probably have all the luck in the Universe, so I am the best candidate for this mission. We just need to ask Professor Snape and Mr. Moody to figure out how to lock everybody up in Time, and also continue with their research on how to retrieve people from the Mirror. I guess locking everyone up in Time is going to be much harder than our previous task."

And here, Hermione was presented with the daunting task that by truth, by outright lying, or whatever other methods, she should pacify Grindelwald and the rest of the world until they figured out how to retrieve Dumbledore from Time (the current estimated timeframe of which was approximately five years in a highly unreliable and probably-too-optimistic estimation), or until they find out how to lock everyone except Hermione up in Time (Harry and Hermione weren't entirely sure that this was doable), or alternatively, until one of the people on their side could gain power in par with Dumbledore (Tom Riddle only gained that level of power in his late thirties or early forties, though if necessary, Harry could wear polyjuiced version of Tom Riddle's true body and then use the Stone to fix it, which might or might not help in shortening the process, yet such change might also impact Harry's personality negatively).

Harry and Hermione's current plan was to convince Grindelwald that the world was fragile, and he'd better not risk pushing the limit; and Hermione could offer Grindelwald some small and possibly harmless pieces of information, such as the secret behind a Version 1.5 Patronus. The problem was, although the enemy might not be as smart as Voldemort/Harry, he was still smart, and his behavior patterns showed that he would like to take things into his own hands. For example, if Hermione were to reveal their plan as to save everyone by the Mirror in case of an apocalyptic disaster, the former dark lord might want a trigger on that ritual, and he might want to significantly reduce the number of Muggles to be saved, while this very act might lead to the end of the world.

Two long corridors and three flights of stairs later, Hermione was in front of the Healing and Consultation Center. As the heavy black iron door creaked open, Hermione and her bodyguards were ushered inside, she looked around the healing center, and found that it resembled more of the inside of St. Mungo's instead of the prison cell in Lucius' memory. Instead of the death-white walls, the inner walls of this healing center were of panelled oak, and the light came from shining bubbles clustered in the middle of the ceiling. And about half of the people in the healing center wore comforting light-green robes, instead of the grim-grey uniforms of the prison guards or the ugly orange robes for the prisoners.

"Lady Granger, it is a great pleasure to meet you. I am Head Healer Erika Fischer, we have communicated by owls." A tall forty-something brown-haired witch in light-green robes walked toward Hermione, her smile sincere, her English a bit stiff.

Hermione had wanted to shake Ms. Fischer's hands out of pure reflexes, but Mad-Eye's stares stopped her, so she smiled, and replied: "Good morning, Ms. Fischer. It is a pleasure to finally meet you, too."

"How was your trip?" Ms. Fischer had just began the courtesies, when a door near the reception area of the healing center opened, and her face stiffened a bit as she saw the old blond wizard in elegant black robes. A younger blond wizard also appeared behind the elder one. The poor Head Healer assigned here by the German Ministry of Magic took in a breath, and forgot about her own previous question: "Lord Grindelwald, please allow me to introduce our Guest Healing Advisor, Lady Hermione Granger."

The dark lord whose name still lingered in a lot of people's nightmares smiled politely, and inclined his head, his ice-blue eyes looking at Hermione as if he was assessing a prey, "Lady Granger, the famous Girl-Who-Revived, what a pleasure to meet you."

Hermione's excellent peripheral vision told her that Ms. Fischer swallowed a bit before she introduced Grindelwald: "Lady Granger, this is Lord Gellert Grindelwald, our Special Healing Advisor."

Although Hermione was still puzzled by why the winners hadn't stripped Grindelwald's title after World War II, she knew this wasn't time to argue this point. "Good morning, Lord Grindelwald."

Grindelwald had undoubtedly sensed Hermione's moral disapproval, and his smile became a bit colder as he said: "Lady Granger, I believe you have already met the Special Healing Assistant, Mr. Lucius Malfoy."

Hermione nodded, and addressed the convicted criminal that the British wizarding legal system had the decency to strip his title - though admittedly, if Lucius hadn't been that cooperating and handing his title to his son, it might be quite a legal battle: "Good morning, Mr. Malfoy."

"Good morning, Lady Granger." Replied the younger blond, whose evilness was dwarfed like a common mortal criminal in front of Lucifer when he was compared with Grindelwald.

Grindelwald's tone took up a hint of condescension, "Lady Granger, if you would excuse the curiosity of an old man, I would really like to see the special charm that turned a place of despair into a place of hope and life, and to see if it can also work its charms on the victims of dementors."

Hermione nodded, and marched toward the ward where Grindelwald and Lucius were in, and Mad-Eye closely followed her suit. Hermione knew the conversation could have been a bit friendlier if she had controlled her righteousness, yet Harry, Lucius, and Severus had all assessed that Grindelwald wasn't the type of person who could be swayed by the atmosphere of the conversation, but rather the results of the bargain. Therefore, there wasn't much need for Hermione to hide her feelings, - plus, she wasn't Harry or Lucius, and she wasn't good at this even if she tried.

After Hermione entered the ward, she saw a thin grey-haired wizard in constraint clothing tied up in the only bed in the room. The wizard's skin was pale, his eyes were empty, and he occasionally mumbled something inaudible, or slightly twitched in his bed. Hermione's excellent vision told her there was a name "Rabastan Lestrange" written on a small card in a corner of the headboard of the bed.

Ms. Fischer entered the ward after Mad-Eye, and began the introduction: "Lady Granger, Mr. Lestrange is a typical severe dementor victim. He is nonresponsive to outside stimuli for the majority of the times, but he can be quite violent at times, and we have also observed behaviors such as self-wounding, self-mutilation, and attempted suicide, so we had to put him in constraints."

Hermione scrutinized Lesath Lestrange's father, and found some facial features that resembled Harry's only minon. However, the most striking part of this man was the emptiness, as if the majority part of his soul - or his self-determined and sapient mind, if that was what "soul" was about - had been sucked out from him from years of dementor exposure on the bottom level of Azkaban. Apparently, this man didn't possess the fervent and painful devotions his mistress held toward Voldemort, and there had been almost nothing left in him.

Hermione took in a breath, and cast the charm that had shown some positive effect on Peter Pettigrew: "Expecto Patronum!"

A blazingly bright ball jumped out from the Girl-Who-Revived's wand tip, and stayed near Rabastan Lestrange's head. The man's eyes moved a bit, his gaze began to focus on Hermione's Patronus, his mouth slightly opened, and drooled.

"Mr. Lestrange, I know this might be hard for you, but can you try to focus on the light and the warm feeling of the Patronus?" Hermione said.

The man in constraint swallowed a bit.

Hermione commanded her Patronus to touch Rabastan's forehead, then the Patronus entered his head, and moved slowly downward. When the Patronus left Rabastan from his feet, the man twitched, and uttered the first audible sound Hermione heard from him: "D - Don't..." His sound was quite strange and rasp, as if his vocal cords were foreign for such functions.

Hermione immediately let her Patronus go back to Rabastan's head, and stayed there.

After gazing at Hermione's Patronus for a while, Grindelwald exclaimed: "Fascinating, absolutely fascinating. Now I finally believe that dementors can be killed by a Patronus. - Lady Granger, can we go somewhere with more privacy?"

Mad-Eye wanted to protest, but Hermione's gaze stopped him.

Grindelwald chuckled darkly, "Oh, Albus' crazy Eye, don't you even know me? I won't take the risk that you British delivered to me."

Lucius wanted to follow Grindelwald and Hermione, but he was also stopped by a glance from Grindelwald. The ex-Lord Malfoy didn't even try to protest.

Therefore, five minutes and twenty-eight privacy and security charms later, in an empty ward, Hermione was alone with the dark lord whose name could still stop children from crying after almost fifty years of imprisonment.

The old blond scrutinized the girl radiating with pure, light, and innocence again, and commented: "Such delicate design, such a lovely threat to the entire world, I should really applaud the mastermind behind this all."

At this time, Hermione was sure Grindelwald knew Dumbledore wasn't behind everything, because the Albus Dumbledore they knew would never bring an embodiment of lucky-now and doomed-forever to the world.

"Well, Lord Grindelwald, I suppose I can tell you one more thing to show our sincerity: David Monroe wasn't killed that night, and the body we buried wasn't him." Hermione stated something that was technically true, yet definitely misleading.

"Ha, and now you are claiming Britain still has someone almost in par with the top wizards in the world." Grindelwald commented sardonically. "Let it be truth or not, my initial offer still stands: let me study the Mirror of Noitilov and the Stone of Permanency, and I shall take an Unbreakable Vow that satisfies the British Ministry of Magic and magical governments of other major nations."

"I am afraid that wouldn't be possible unless you truly repented." The Girl-Who-Revived replied matter-of-factly.

Grindelwald firmly stated: "Though I might have lost in the cause that I still believe in, I shall not repent for it."

Hermione replied: "We do not expect you to. However, we can cooperate on other matters of importance."

"Such as the trivial secret behind your Patronus?" Grindelwald scoffed. The dark lord suddenly smiled viciously, "Muggleborn girl, do you know nuclear weapons?"

Severus, Lucius, and Harry had estimated that Grindelwald might know about nuclear weapons, but they didn't expect him to suddenly bring this up.

-_Does he want to convince me how evil the Muggles are, and why wizards should rule the Muggles?_

"I do, but -" Hermione wanted to point out that the Muggles were holding talks to reduce the number of nuclear warheads, and some countries would give up their nuclear weapons.

Grindelwald cut in: "And do you know the world almost came to its end in 1962, way before you were born?"

Hermione supposed that Grindelwald was referring to the Cuban Missile Crisis, which luckily ended in a peaceful way. She wanted to use this as an example to convince Grindelwald that the top figures in Muggle governments were sane - well, in developed countries, on such important matters anyway.

"Ah, yes, you are more knowledgeable than most. But do you know wizards such as Lord Lincoln, Comrade Shakhov, and the humble man standing in front of you are the true heroes who solved the issue?" Grindelwald stepped forward, his tall figure towering over Hermione.

"You, what?" Hermione was too shocked to form a reasonable reply.

Grindelwald looked down hard at Hermione: "Yes, an ardent communist such as Comrade Shakhov decided to go against his long-held communist party disciplines, a firm believer of freedom such as Lord Lincoln altered the mind of the Leader of the Free World, and the few people of the Known all agree to enlist me to stop nuclear weapons from being used by the British Muggles, by any means, at all costs, even if that meant I have to duel Albus - who probably would think I started all this to gain world domination. And without the Elder Wand, I expected myself to lose, but that would create some valuable time window for other Lords and Ladies to properly manage the Muggle politicians' minds. Well, Shakhov and Lincoln luckily managed to curtail their own Muggle leaders without too much trouble or wizarding opposition, and my service wasn't really needed that time."

Hermione was completely in loss of words. She supposed, what the Comrades, Lords, and Ladies did was quite reasonable, and the world was quite lucky to have them. However, to think Grindelwald amongst the group of people who saved the world, and Dumbledore as someone whose ideology might lead to world destruction - that was hard.

"I suppose I shouldn't expect a 'thank you' from Albus' hand-picked heroine such as yourself, but could you have a mind of your own, and realize how important the origin of magic is now? That might be our only way out, before another such crisis happens, and we may not be there to save the world from Muggles every time!" Grindelwald's voice was firm and harsh, and it was from above Hermione's head.

The Girl-Who-Revived took in a breath, and looked up at Grindelwald: "Lord Grindelwald, I need time to process this information, and I need consultation from others before I can give you a reply on this."

Grindelwald waved his hand, and dismissed Hermione.


	44. Chapter 44 Space Travel I, Cheating

I would like to thank my beta, Kuilin.

* * *

Chapter 44.

Space Travel, Part I: Cheating

3:02 am, July 21st, 1993

Harry tossed and turned in his bed, and waked up from a familiar nightmare where the entire world was burning, he could hear people screaming everywhere, he wanted to save everyone, yet he couldn't do anything but to watch every sapient being burned alive. Harry gasped, and tried to clear his head. After a while, he got his wand in hand, and cast: "Tempus."

"3:02 am, July 21st, 1993" popped up in the air.

Harry sighed, and slowly sat up.

The multiple uses of Time-Turners each day, his sleeping disorder, plus the fact that his body was slowly but definitely building up resistance against the potion that prolonged his sleep cycle, meant that Harry's sleep cycle was more or less a mess now. During school times, Harry tried to synchronize his awake hours with the rest of the school, so that he could attend senior level classes, such as fifth- and sixth-year transfiguration, fifth-year arithmancy, and fourth- and fifth- year charms, etc. Harry and Hermione were only attending second-year herbology and third-year potions last year, though, because those two courses required too much practise and they simply didn't have enough time. Nowadays, Minerva, Severus, Mad-Eye, and basically everyone else, adjusted their time schedule to suit Harry's. If Harry wanted a Hebrew class at 3:30 am today, fine, either Headmistress Minerva McGonagall or the ill-tempered ex-Potions Master would get up and gave Harry the lecture without a single word of complaint. Of course, for the most part, Harry wouldn't be that insensitive, and he devoted such inconvenient awake time to solitary study and thinking.

Harry got up from bed, grabbed a breakfast bar from his pouch, and entered his trunk. After applying the privacy and security charms that he could manage without tiring himself out, and pressed the button in the locket that Severus gave him (Harry had Mad-Eye to check on it, obviously), Harry sat down by his desk, and drew out the Bayesian Graph Hermione and he drew out yesterday.

Yesterday, after viewing Hermione's memory, Harry had to admit that he, too, was shocked by the level of involvement in Muggle politics the Lords, Ladies, and Comrades were, how sane a good portion of them were, and how lucky the world had been in 1962. Of course, Hermione didn't respond too well to this kind of revelation at that time, and a more skilled negotiator such as Harry himself might be able to get more information from Grindelwald yesterday, but that was a risk that Harry had to take when he sent Hermione there in his place.

One of Harry's primary questions was why Grindelwald chose to reveal this secret in such a fashion.

-_Lucius and Severus agreed that Grindelwald seemed to be quite urgent in something. Can it be that he, too, has heard of Prophecies about the world's destruction? In Dumbledore's letter to me, he mentioned that there had been a lot of Prophecies made about the end of the world, so it is almost impossible that only Dumbledore knew about them. Given that Grindelwald is so well connected, and the amount of resources that the other powerful wizards in contacts with him have at hand, the probability isn't bad. _

Harry sighed.

-_Probably, a lot of powerful wizards have been warned about the world's destruction. The eagerness they expressed toward the Stone may not mean that they are all self-serving bastards and bitches, or at least, they have REASONS to consider themselves not to be. They can honestly tell themselves that they are searching all possible means to prevent the world from destruction. However, only Dumbledore had access to all Prophecies, so that only Dumbledore could deduce the boy called Harry Potter was the only loophole in the web of Prophecies. As for the other people who wield real power, clever and/or sane they may be - they can't obtain their level of power by sheer luck - they don't have the full picture._

For an instant, Harry had the impulse to just tell everyone with real power the truth, that the Boy-Who-Lived was the only real hope the world had, so that they would all flock to protect Harry from any harm. However, Harry knew that would only cause disastrous results: some of the thirty-something top wizards, such as Grindelwald and Voldemort, would probably prefer to take things into their own hands, and "protect" Harry in their own way.

-_Did Grindelwald receive a recent warning about the pending destruction of the world? Is that why he was so urgent? More importantly, if there is indeed a Prophecy about that, did it mention anything related to the origin of magic?_

-_Alternatively, could the new Prophecy about something related to the various Interdicts powerful wizards imposed on this world? Or rather, there was an old Prophecy that Grindelwald already knew of, and he learned something new out from it since he guessed out the relationship between Unbreakable Vows and Interdicts?_

Harry's gaze moved to the stack of notes on his desk, which were duplicated from the original notes Dumbledore left to him, where Dumbledore guessed that the world had been way more magical than its current state, and dangerous usage of magic had pushed powerful wizards to impose one Interdict after another to prevent the world from destruction. Harry could understand why people did that, and he had impulses to make Interdicts of Harry from time to time.

However, it was just sad that people had to put so much constraints on themselves just to survive. If there hadn't been so many self-imposed shackles, with the magic that Merlin had, plus the current Muggle technology, human beings could be exploring other galaxies within the next one hundred years. In that way, human beings were much less likely to extinct if some stupid Muggleborn decided that transfiguring antimatter would be a good idea.

-_Actually, since relatively powerful wizards such as Severus and Mad-Eye can do wandless free transfigurations, transfiguring something in high vacuum with proper electrical field applied around it into charged antiparticles could be a great way to gain almost infinite energy. Although we don't know if it is that easy to cheat yet, there is no reason that it isn't. With antimatter engines, instead of the current chemically powered engines, we can go to Mars in no time._

All of a sudden, a fantastic cheating idea came into Harry's mind: _If it is true that the Interdict of Merlin and/or the Interdict on Electronics only work on or near the surface of Earth, we can get a duplicate of spacesuit, ask someone on our side (probably Hermione) to wear it, and ask Fawkes to take her the Moon. Probably, Hermione would be able to read notes left by ancient wizards, and we will gain really powerful knowledge from there. _

Harry's heart was pounding fast, and his lips became dry. With a slightly trembled hand, he picked up the pencil.

-_It is already known that phoenixes can bring someone from New Zealand to the United Kingdom without any problem, and the straight distance between New Zealand and the United Kingdom is… Let's say, between seven and eight thousand miles? And the distance between the Earth and the Moon is, err, 240,000 miles or so? Therefore, the question becomes whether Fawkes can travel about thirty-something times of its known capacity at once, or if not, whether it can travel consecutively thirty times. _

-_On another thought, if the distance between the Earth and the Moon isn't enough, would the distance between the Earth and the Mars do?_

-_By the way, does phoenix need to breath air? Should we give Fawkes a spacesuit, too?_

As Harry noted down his thoughts, he couldn't help but to want to wake Hermione up, and discuss the idea with her; or to wake Severus up, and to ask him to go to Baikonur Cosmodrome and duplicate several spacesuits and early models of manned satellites.

The smile on the Boy-Who-Lived's face grew wider and wider.

* * *

Note: The Universe is very large. It is hard for me to accept that the rule of the entire Universe would change because someone like Merlin willed it - the Atlanteans were more powerful than Merlin, but they couldn't simply change the rule of the Universe to save themselves.


	45. Chapter 45 Space Travel II,Possibilities

I would like to thank my beta, Kuilin.

* * *

Chapter 45.

Space Travel, Part II: Possibilities

6:13 am, July 21st, 1993

On and around Harry's desk in his trunk, stacks and stacks books on astronomy, astrophysics, history of space exploration, science fiction, and other related topics scattered all over the place.

After Harry copied down yet another equation that they might use later, he glanced at his mechanical watch, and wondered if this would be an acceptable time to wake everyone up. A bright ball of light appeared in front of Harry at this time. With the power of Severus' locket, there were only a limited number of people whose names were on a whitelist that could approach Harry with their Patronus, so this got to be something urgent. In Mad-Eye's raspy voice, the Patronus said: "Son, Lucius Malfoy requested an immediate meeting with you, stating that he thought of something rather important, and he refused to let me know."

Harry glanced down at his draft on the possible route to the Moon.

-_Lucius can't guess out that we should go to the Moon, can he? No, shrewd as the ex-Lord Malfoy is, he is not sharp on this kind of stuff. Something about Grindelwald, then._

Harry replied: "Send him in, my headquarter office."

-_Hopefully, this isn't something about how Grindelwald might also know a Prophecy. Err, since Hermione and I decided not to reveal our guess to the rest of them, especially, not to someone meets Grindelwald on a daily basis, so if Lucius has thought of the same thing, he has every reason to consider this an important secret that he should only tell me. _

_-Geez. However, I do have to listen to what Lucius has to say, just in case that he has thought of some other important matters._

Harry reluctantly packed up his space travel plans, and sighed. Keeping so much secrets from almost everyone could be a burden, mentally, physically, and now, on his limited time budget as well. It was at these times, Harry understood why Dumbledore might appear to be a bit insane.

Harry trudged up the stairs, and left his trunk. He quickly washed, changed, and Floo-ed to his headquarter office with the Auror trio that was protecting him. Once in his office, Harry worked on the fireplace a bit to allow Mad-Eye and Lucius to come through, and the two quickly entered from the green flames.

As Mad-Eye was reluctantly applying protection and privacy charms around Harry and Lucius while excluding himself out, Harry sized up the blond who grew a special preference for the holding cell in DMLE ever since he guessed out that Grindelwald saw through their pretence of Dumbledore being around, and Voldemort might be among the guards. Harry couldn't help but to hold some distain upon the nobleman who cherished his own life so much, yet had cold-bloodedly killed at least seven others. However, since Lucius' mind was still useful now, and since he was Draco's father, Harry kept the feeling to himself.

After Mad-Eye was done with the spells, Lucius began in Parseltongue: "_Lord Potter, ass I thought of Grindelwald'ss behavior yessterday, hiss urgentnesss jumped up a bit after he ssaw the advanced Patronuss. Thiss indicatess it had ssomething to do with the Patronuss, posssibly the powerful life magic in it. And hiss biggesst ssecret, whatever it iss, should be death magic. Maybe, the advanced Patronuss can block or interrupt the ritual that made him invincible._"

Harry's mouth slightly opened: _Ahh, that - that is another possibility, actually. And the chances aren't bad. This is indeed why we need a human expert on our side. On another thought, the true Patronus, plus Hermione's almost infinite vitality, should be able to block most death magic. Hmm, this is why I should always listen to my subordinates - they do come up with ideas that I have not thought of. I suppose, Lucius wouldn't dare to wake Voldemort up at 6 am, and tell him such important secrets. _

Harry replied: "_Thiss iss a very good guesss indeed, Mr. Malfoy._"

To Harry's slight surprise, Lucius continued to reveal another important guess: "_And the Elder Wand, which iss alsso called the Death Sstick, might have gained itss name for a reason._"

Some human part of Harry instinctively wanted to reject the indication that the wand made by his ancestors could be used in something that evil, but the other parts of Harry knew better, so he kept his mouth closed.

Lucius hissed: "_After I learned the Patronuss, Sseveruss had asked me a riddle, 'what cannot be killed?'At that time, it sseemed to me that the ansswer wass death. However, I don't really have the mental capacity to conquer death ass you and the Lady do._"

Harry made a mental note to himself that he should tell Severus to be more discrete with important secrets with his best friend, no matter how much that black-haired man might want Lucius to live. And then, Harry's exceptional vivid imagination depicted a scene where he himself had to decide whether or not to reveal a secret to Hermione that could potentially save her life, and Harry found himself unable to withhold the information. Harry wasn't that sure whether he should lecture Severus anymore.

-_In a sense, Severus had been a very lonely man, just like I was before I met Hermione. The friendship from the Malfoys might be the best thing ever happened to him since, err, since my mother broke up with him. Moreover, Severus has saved Lucius a couple dozen times, which might also contribute to his protectiveness toward Lucius._

Then, Harry remembered what happened when another man forced Severus to face the possibility of his best friend's death.

Harry felt cold sweat running down his spines: _Thanks to Hermione, I am NOT Voldemort, and I will not become Voldemort._

Lucius' words continued without Harry's input: "_Lasst night, as I thought over it, I realized that people might think there iss another thing that could not be killed - ssomeone or ssomething between life and death, for example, a wizard without a pounding heart._"

And then Harry got it. From the tale of _The Warlock's Hairy Heart_, a powerful wizard could survive without a pounding heart for quite a while. From what Antioch Peverell understood of life and death, someone without a heart yet still breathing and thinking could be considered "between life and death". Probably, Antioch took out his own heart, made it into the core of the Elder Wand. Considering himself incapable of being killed, Antioch used the Elder Wand to challenge Death, and failed - the killing curse could kill everything with a brain, not everything with a heart.

Lucius' guesses added another layer to the story: "_If the taless about the Peverell brotherss are true, then the brotherss musst have dessigned powerful magic to conquer Death. Probably, the wand with the core of a breathing human'ss heart can alsso be conssidered ass ssomething between life and death, and wieldss the power to transsform death magic into other typess of magic. In thiss way, Antioch Peverell could utilize the almosst infinite magic from Death, he also thought that he couldn't be killed by Death, and he tried._"

-_Oh wait, Voldemort knew how to summon Death with a rope which has hanged a man and a sword which has slayed a woman. He might have gained this knowledge from Slytherin's pet snake, and Salazar might gain this knowledge from his ancestors, the Peverell brothers. It all fits._

Harry briefly imagined the sad scene that his powerful and brilliant ancestor made the Death Stick with his own heart, how he summoned Death himself, how he bravely dueled with the last enemy of any sapient being, and how his misconception about life and death became the fatal error in his plan. However, since Death didn't devour all human beings more than one thousand years ago, probably Antioch had sent Death back to wherever it belonged before he died.

Lucius stayed silent for a while, as if mourning for Antioch together with Harry, and then continued: "_Grindelwald might have ussed the Death Sstick to transsform the death magic produced by the killing of Muggless to hiss own magic, and hence made himsself invincible._"

Harry had to admit, Lucius' deduction made a lot of sense. Actually, his deduction made too much sense.

-_Is this the advantage of having a genuinely dark wizard on our side? Or is it another incident with the "Protego Vitamaxima"? _

-_However, if this is Voldemort again, why did he tell us this? Learning to be nice?! No, this is way too nice._

-_On the other hand, Lucius is indeed a human expert, and it is this man who came up with the original idea about the Elder Wand and the Malfoy's family wand before. _

Harry searched the blond wizard's face, and found that Lucius looked at him in an expectant way.

-_Oh, right. I have promised him that I would negotiate a one hundred years deduction in prison sentence if he finds out what Grindelwald's secret is._

-_Don't tell me that Voldemort told Lucius the secret, because he wanted Lucius to have a shorter prison sentence. That is simply ridiculous!_

-_Ah, I know someone with this motive. Severus Snape. Severus might have left hints in Lucius' mind, memory charmed Lucius, and probably also memory charmed himself._

Harry didn't quite know what to do with the black-haired wizard who was probably too loyal to his best friend by this point. Harry breathed in, and breathed out.

"_Mr. Malfoy, if everything you ssaid -" _Harry glanced at Lucius who was about to protest, and changed his sentence, "_If the gisst of thiss iss verified, I will hold my sside of the bargain._"


	46. Chapter 46 Space Travel III, Salazar

I would like to thank my beta, Kuilin.

* * *

Chapter 46.

Space Travel, Part III: Lord Slytherin's Favorite Morning Radio

7:22 am, July 21st, 1993

In his new secret chamber in Hogwarts, tuned in for his favorite "radio channel (as the current wizards called it)" from "Harry Potter's" headquarter office, Lord Salazar Slytherin sat in a couch whose comfort level just didn't exist in his time, and enjoyed his breakfast: a roasted tomato, baked potatoes, and fried eggs. Salazar found the novel food items, - such as tomatoes and potatoes, which were unknown to the Europeans back in his time, - quite pleasant to eat.

Again, Salazar felt that locking himself up in the Mirror was the best decision he had ever made. Of course, Salazar didn't just mean the food and furniture, he was primarily referring to the powerful magic he learnt in this new era - for example, the one that "Harry Potter" was currently telling the unicorn girl what Lucius revealed to him.

Although Salazar was dissatisfied by Lucius' failure in Draco's linguistic education, he did have to credit Lucius for his intuition and human skills for figuring out the hypothesis that the improved Patronus could interrupt the death magic that had once made Grindelwald invincible. However, the need for a magical item that transcended life and death as an intermediary was definitely not Lucius' original idea. Salazar was quite sure of that, because, well, he himself was the one who actually thought of it during the so-called "brainstorm" with Severus last night.

After guessing out this important secret, Salazar wanted to test whether it was true as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, Salazar didn't have any wand that was made of the heart of a human being at hand, but he knew where to get one.

To be honest, it was a bit embarrassing for Salazar to temporarily borrow a gift that he gave to his descendants without notifying the rightful owner, especially, when another descendant - who also happened to be the owner's godfather - was watching. Salazar had to hiss to Severus to promise that he would return the wand to little Draco the moment he was done, so that Severus would stop looking at him in that way.

The Boy-Who-Lived had kept two dementors in Hogwarts as a Voldemort killer, so these unpleasant creatures became safe and convenient lesser substitutes for Death himself. Salazar and Severus slipped into the room where the dementors were guarded by two Auror trio, and Salazar knocked down all the Aurors in one blow. Salazar grabbed one of the cages containing the dementors, and Apparated back to his new secret chamber together with Severus.

With Severus getting ready to block the dementor anytime if things went wrong, Salazar tried to give the dementor mental commands. After a number of failures, Salazar observed a horrified magical twitch from the dementor when he was determined that he would protect the world from being destructed by the Muggles, as if the shadow of death was trying to refuse this possibility. Salazar thought for a while, and then tricked his mind into another mentality: _Shadow of Death, you know the advanced Patronus can banish you, so help yourself by lending me some of your power, or you won't exist. _

Salazar did feel a bit of death magic the dementor was reluctantly streaming toward his way then. However, even if Salazar knew he could transform the death magic into neutral magic with Armand's heart, still fresh and sort of "alive" after so many years, contacting such dirty magic was still highly uncomfortable.

Salazar signaled to Severus to let him use his Patronus to block the dementor for a while, so that Salazar would be able to think. With Severus' bright ball of Patronus, the death magic the poor shadow of Death was still streaming toward Salazar was blocked. Severus seemed to be uncomfortable upon the contact, while the empty cloak representing death rolled and twisted painfully in the air.

-_Ah, the stream of death magic can be blocked by our version of improved Patronus. Therefore, the better Patronus wielded by my crazy descendant and the unicorn girl must be more powerful toward this kind of magical streaming. _

Salazar thought for a while, then signaled Severus to stop. Salazar pointed the Malfoy family wand toward the death magic stream, and willed it to absorb the death magic. Salazar felt death magic entering the wand, and the wand - or Armand's heart - screamed that it resented the dirty magic. Salazar waved the wand to cast "Lumos". A bright light ball larger than the head of a troll rushed out of the wand, and Severus quickly dodge away from the should-be-faint light ball dashing like a cannon shell. The light ball smashed into the opposite wall, and several pieces of shattered stone slabs flew out from the surface of the magically reinforced solid stone wall.

Severus asked in disbelief: "_Iss that a Lumoss?_"

Salazar mentally willed the dementor to stop, and looked down at the wand in amazement, and, err -

Severus' eyes also turned to the Malfoy family wand.

To Salazar's great embarrassment, the oak wand carefully maintained by generations of Malfoys over the past one thousand years had developed quite some visible cracks.

-_Damn it! Oak is for life and affinity to magic, while yew is the proper container for death. _

Salazar quickly examined the core of the wand, and found that Armand's heart was luckily unhurt. Realizing Severus also noticed the cracks, Salazar hissed awkwardly: "_I am an exceptional wand maker. Shall repair and improve it before returning it to little Draco. Wrong type of wood. I shall not usse it again._"

Severus paused for a while, and then commented: "_Impresssive magic._"

While Salazar was busy repairing and improving the Malfoy family wand with magic that he invented after he made this particular wand, he started to wonder if he had been too soft to his descendants.

-_I have probably told Severus too much, and Draco may later discover that the wand becomes better. Maybe the Stone can't fix softness caused by old age._

"_Sso, iss thiss the ssecret?_" Severus examined the wall, asking.

Salazar was glad that Severus was clever enough to omit the awkward part of tonight's experiment, so he explained to the descendant whom he was determined to memory charm soon: "_Probably the German guy ussed a different mentality, making a deal with Death through a life eater or ssomething like that, while_ I _threatened it._ _I ssupposse, having a trade can render the magic flow more controllable, while my method would drain a dirty creature out of exisstence in sseveral minutess. I need to work on the detailss of thiss for a while, in casse I need a power boosst for a short period ssometime later._"

After Salazar properly managed the dementor and the Auror trios, he and Severus turned the Time-Turner twice and sneaked toward Draco's bed chamber. All this time, Severus seemed to be in some sort of emotional conflict.

"_What?_" Salazar asked.

Severus reluctantly answered, "_The Boy-Who-Lived hass promissed to reduce Luciuss' prison time by one hundred yearss, in casse Lucius figuress out the ssecret. I know Luciuss deservess every minute of hiss ssentence, but -_"

"_You want to tell Luciuss thiss ssecret?_" Salazar asked in disbelief.

Severus was quite embarrassed, "_I -_"

Salazar sighed inwardly: _I do hope my descendants are friendly toward each other, but this is too much. Did Lucius treat his bastard brother so well, that after Severus brought Lucius back from death, Severus still feels that he needs to get a shorter prison sentence for Lucius? Although I think Lucius should be rewarded, instead of being locked up for killing Muggle-lovers, this -_

Salazar then realized three things that he needed to do: _First, I need to get a heart willingly taken out from someone's chest; second, I'd better undermine Severus and Lucius' loyalty to the so-called "Boy-Who-Lived", so that they won't stick to this crazy descendant after I reveal the truth to them; and third, I have to test and see if this crazy descendant would try to make a deal with Death, and I shall kill him the instance he prepares the ritual. _

_-Hmm, I should put something on the Death Stick, so that I shall be notified if it absorbs any death magic. _

_-No, to be safe. I should link the Death Stick to my set of triggers on the Mirror, so that once my crazy descendant tries to sacrifice a lot of lives, and to transform death magic to other types of magic with it, all Riddles would be locked up in the Mirror. _

_-Yes, this would be Riddle's first and possibly only test. If the younger Riddle - or anyone else, for that matter - decides to kill a lot of Muggles to gain infinite power, according to what Severus explained to me several times, and what I now conjecture, may lead to Muggles to use the ritual weapon. Therefore, I should modify the trigger on the Mirror, so that if any wielder of the Death Stick tries to make a deal with Death, they would be locked in Time._

Then, another idea came to Salazar: _As a matter of fact, since the younger Riddle already incorporated the Shadow of Death a part of the set of triggers to lock himself up (with my help, of course), by threatening them, I should further threaten the dementors, so that if anyone tries to make a deal with Death by mass sacrifice - not only restricted to the use of the Death Stick - he or she would be locked up in Time. Hmm, this magic would take me a few days to perfect, but it is definitely doable._

"_Alright, let'ss go to the sso-called Ministry of Magic after returning the wand to little Draco, and talk to Luciuss._" Salazar hissed.

Severus' eyes opened wide in amazement and gratefulness.

With Severus leading the way, Salazar breaking the sham of magical wards in the Ministry of Magic like a breath (with a few exceptions in DMLE, which took Salazar a few minutes), they sneaked into the temporary holding cell in no time.

After stunning Lucius - in case the blond made some unwise moves - Salazar woke him up. Lucius seemed to be first confused and horrified by the situation, but after Salazar removed his previous memory charm, realization began to show on Lucius' face. All of a sudden, Lucius shot Severus a grateful look.

Salazar didn't want to pander on the question that how much the blond had guessed out. He cursed his softness again, and asked with a straight face: "_Luciuss, what do you think of the matterss of yessterday?_"

Salazar knew Severus was mouthing "speak truth" behind his back. Since this would help with their conversation, Salazar ignored it.

Lucius then revealed what he thought of before he fell asleep, that Grindelwald's eagerness jumped up after he saw the Granger girl's Patronus, and the ritual might be tempered with the powerful life magic.

To Salazar's amazement, what Lucius got from reading Grindelwald was quite accurate, while Severus and Salazar himself only got this point from experiments with a dementor.

-_Good boy, Lucius. Grandpa Salazar shall reward you for this._

Salazar pulled out a newly made hat from his pouch, and put the hat on his head. Salazar could feel the excitement and happiness flowing out of the wizard behind him the moment he took out the hat, and Salazar annoyingly admitted that he was spoiling his descendants again.

Salazar sighed inwardly, put the hat and a gold coin on the ground, and casted "Avada Kedavra" toward the hat. A few incantations later, Lucius became much harder to kill.

When Salazar packed the hat and the gold coin up, he allowed Severus to explain the situation to Lucius. Of course, Salazar interrupted at the last part, and only revealed the proper segments of the secret to Lucius.

To Salazar's delight and slight embarrassment, Lucius proved that he was much sharper in human stuff than Severus was. The blond took in a breath, and said: "_Lord Sslytherin, there iss no word that can expresss my gratitude. If there iss anything that I can do for you, pleasse do assk. For example, I ssupposse, a new wand might prove handy for the tassk? It would be my great honor, if my heart can be ussed for thiss great purposse._"

-_Oh, Lucius is clever. I didn't insinuate that oak was not proper for the ritual, nor did I mention that I broke and repaired Malfoy family wand in my experiment. Hmm, I suppose Lucius wants to make sure that Draco always has the Malfoy family wand at hand, so he proposed that I should make a new one with his heart. And he probably also wants me to feel guilty._

The irritating part of the matter was, although Salazar had made sure that Lucius couldn't be killed by something such as losing a heart, one of his initial aims to be here was to obtain Lucius' heart, and he knew exactly what game Lucius was playing, Salazar still felt a bit of guilt toward this sneaky descendant.

"_Wha- _"Severus hissed in horror, and then quickly said, "_Ssalazar, you have made me a horcrux ass well, sso I -_"

Although Salazar did predict that Lucius had the highest probability of getting maimed or killed by either Grindelwald or one of the Tom Riddles, he couldn't rule out the possibility that either Severus or himself would be in a better position to undergo the unpleasant process of handing out the heart before Lucius did, so he said: "_Nah, don't fight for thiss now, whichever of the three of uss here needss the usse of the Sstone for other reasons firsst winss. And now, Luciuss, I shall memory-charm you, sso that you would reveal certain ssecretss to the Boy-Who-Lived, and ssee if he keepss hiss promisse._"

-_And to see how "Harry Potter" treats the friendship between his subordinates._

A few hours later, Salazar was in his new secret chamber, listening to the younger Riddle's moral dilemma.

The "boy" said: "Hermione, I need to tell you more about what I think happened with Lucius, before I can tell you what occurred to me around 3 am this morning, so that you won't be overwhelmed by my grand plan. I think the 'Patronus can interrupt the death ritual' part is probably Lucius' original idea. Actually, it is quite obvious in retrospect, and Lucius is an expert in reading human. However, I suspect that Severus told Lucius the second part, or at least he gave Lucius hints on it, then he memory-charmed both of them, so that Lucius can get a reduction in prison sentence."

The self-righteous unicorn girl replied with some moral nonsense, just as Salazar expected.

The young Riddle sighed: "Hermione, the problem is, we don't have any evidence, and Lucius did figure out the similarity between the Malfoy family wand and the Elder wand himself, so my guess isn't really well grounded. I would only assign it with at most seventy percent probability. And OK, Hermione, you can scream to me now, for I - , err, maybe I have read too much books with the high level villains giving orders to their subordinates in elusive ways, and while dealing with Lucius, I subconsciously lead myself into it. Well, when I talked to Lucius about his mission to weasel out Grindelwald's biggest secret, I asked Lucius to 'by any means that neither endangers the world, nor carries a prison sentence more than two years, figure out why Grindelwald had been invincible'. Back then, I was thinking on bribery, Confundus, or some other minor infringements of law. Therefore, even if my guess is correct, Lucius has figured it out by being friends with Severus - which is entirely legal - I am still responsible for getting him an one-hundred-year deduction in prison sentence. And by the way, I have also promised Lucius that in case he figures out Grindelwald's secret, I will not allow anyone to charge him with any other past crimes that didn't involve the death or permanent mental damage to sapient beings. Yeah, I am trapped by my own words this time. I should have realized that someone like Lucius Malfoy will definitely abuse any loopholes, and next time, I would be more careful with my promises with anyone."

While the self-righteous half-unicorn uttered more nonsense, Salazar thought: _What? The younger Riddle does feel obliged to keep his words?! Hmm, judging from Severus' and Lucius' first interactions with me, I thought Tom Riddle was entirely unworthy of a leader of any kind. Is the younger Riddle acting this way, because he thinks this fits his current mask? This is madness beyond my imagination._

The younger Riddle accepted the Granger girl's critic, and said: "My major concern is, how should I treat the friendship between Severus and the Malfoys? Whether Severus is innocent in this incident or not, he probably did give the riddle containing the secret of the true Patronus to Lucius. I realize that Severus is probably more loyal to the Malfoys than to me, and he probably has some problems with withholding information from people he really likes. I suppose, from a human perspective, there is nothing wrong with holding your friends and godson in a higher position than the leader you serve because, err, because you don't want the world to be destroyed by the leader, I guess. And since I have never announced any rules, nor has Severus ever formally sworn loyalty, I can hardly call it betrayal even if Severus did leave some hints to Lucius. Hermione, when I made up a hypothetical scene in my head, that by not telling you some secret, you are, say, ten percent more likely to die, I would probably tell you some hints about the secret even if I know the secret might be dangerous. And in another entirely hypothetical scene, - Hermione, I know you would never do what Lucius did - say, you are found guilty for, err, causing severe head injuries to innocent bystanders in an unavoidable situation, I would definitely cheat the system in order to get you out of jail sooner. Hermione, I know this might be unfair to you, but you are the reason that I am not You-Know-Who, and we both know You-Know-Who's decision to dismiss Severus' request for Lily's life to be spared had lead to, could you tell me what should I do with Severus and Lucius?"

-_Ha, tossing your hard decision to your subordinates? What a sham! Godric never did this. However, what does "you are the reason that I am not You-Know-Who" mean? Does this horcrux of Tom Riddle really think that he is an independant character? Did Tom Riddle make some original discoveries with horcrux that he didn't tell Nagini? Could he really cut off only pieces of his character from himself as some religious mudbloods suggested, that making horcrux was splitting your soul, and you could cut some characters off from yourself? _

Salazar remembered that Severus once said Tom Riddle grew up in a Muggle Catholic orphanage, therefore Tom Riddle did know Muggle religion, and he could very well shape his inventions according to some ideas he learnt when he was young.

Just as Salazar began to wonder what would happen if this younger Riddle did contain most of the "good" characters of the original Tom Riddle (which the original one clearly didn't have much), the unicorn girl finished her hesitation, and said: "I am OK with the fact that Lucius and Severus are friends. And since you said you probably would do the same things for me, I guess I shouldn't raise my moral bar too high for Severus. Telling Lucius the riddle on the true Patronus might be acceptable. However, if your guess is right, this means Severus' moral standards aren't that high. Severus Snape joined the Death Eaters when he knew they were evil, and I am sorry Harry, he only abandoned his cause because the life of the woman he loved was threatened. He might have changed during the years he served Dumbledore, but he left us the first instance he thought Lily's death was revenged, to seek power of his own - not that there is anything wrong with it, you even encouraged him to do so. I don't want to raise the moral bar too high, but on the other hand, Mad-Eye stayed, - even after he regained his youth and his leg. Mad-Eye probably has never thought of resuming his dream to become a top wizard, he just stayed and protected us and the Stone. And I know, with the Russian textbooks and secrets, both of us agree that Severus is probably more useful than Mad-Eye. If Severus did leave hints to Malfoy, then Mad-Eye is definitely more trustworthy than Severus. Mad-Eye serves you because he is doing the right thing, while as you said, Severus serves you because he doesn't want the world to be destroyed. I don't mean that Severus is serving you for a _wrong_ reason, but his reason isn't as _right_ as Mad-Eye's, neither are his moral standards. Therefore, my suggestion is, first, let's try to find out what indeed happened. If that isn't possible, well, although due procedures call for us to assume that people are innocent unless proven guilty, we do need to observe Severus and Lucius more closely. As for Malfoy's prison sentence, let's defer the decision until we know what happened, or after we know it is impossible to know the answer, or, at least, after we know whether they are the true secrets of Grindelwald's invincibility."

Salazar almost seethed in fire: _To "know it is impossible to know the answer"? You can use this excuse to defer it forever. What a detestable power-hungry mudblood bitch! You know the world is safe only when all Riddles are locked in Time, while you and Draco are assigned to be in charge. If Draco is going to hold you responsible for the younger Riddle's words to get Lucius the reduction in prison sentence, you may use the younger Riddle's guess today as an excuse to drive Draco out of power! And, is this why the younger Riddle ask this self-righteous Mudblood half-unicorn? So he has an excuse not to give Lucius his commutation? Or that he_ wants _the Mudblood to have a weapon to deprive Draco of his power and/or his Father? Probably, this younger Riddle isn't the embodiment of the good characters of the original Riddle after all._

The younger Riddle hesitated for a while, and then said: "Hermione, yeah, you are right in a way. We do need to try out Lucius' ideas, and try to figure out what indeed happened, before deciding anything. I don't assume Grindelwald has left a written instruction manual lying anywhere, so we need to figure out the details ourselves. By 'ourselves', I mean Severus, Mad-Eye, you, and I. Unfortunately, Severus and Mad-Eye have quite a long list of things to figure out now. Moreover, I will have more urgent matters that would occupy their time very soon."

-_Hmm, deferring difficult decisions. I guess he is just pretending to be good._

"OK, still on the current matter. From what might or might not happen yesterday, I notice that there is some severe problems with our current organization. First, our organization doesn't have any formal rules besides 'don't destroy the world' and 'obey Harry Potter', so that everyone is running on the rules of their own. This seems to be the general condition for most wizarding groups, but you and I should know better. And I suppose, Mad-Eye's rules are quite different from that of Severus', and that may be one of the reasons why they fight so much. Hermione, you and I need to make up some rules. Since Lucius is so good at abusing any loopholes, Draco and Lucius should be the ones to examine the rules for loopholes, and I can hold them responsible if anyone abuses the rules in ways that they should have thought of; Mad-Eye is good at security stuff, so he should be the one to safety-check everything; you should check on the moral stuff; and I should check the sanity of the rules."

Salazar listened to Harry's analysis of his organization, and found it quite reasonable. Lord Slytherin had lead wars against enemies many times, but he had never quite thought the organizational stuff as thoroughly as this younger Riddle did. Abusing the loopholes by subordinates? Sure. Salazar clearly remembered what an expert Armand was at this - even better than Salazar himself. However, Salazar had never thought of letting Armand criticing all the possible loopholes of the rules to be made.

Harry continued: "Moreover, we are in severe shortage of manpower - we rely on Severus and Mad-Eye on almost anything of real importance. I know we can trust Professor McGonagall's integrity, but since she is not a perfect Occlumens, so I can't tell her much of anything. The same goes for Professor Lupin. Kingsley Shacklebolt is a perfect Occlumens, but we don't know him much beyond Mad-Eye's words, and his current job to protect the Muggle Prime Minister is of vital importance as well. Besides them, the Order of Phoenix doesn't have any competent and clear-thinking wizards. I mean, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley are relatively powerful, but they are more like, you know, Ron, instead of the twins. Mrs. Malfoy and the Tonks are potential allies, but none of them is a perfect Occlumens, either. In the long run, we need to set up a training program, probably lead by Severus and Mad-Eye, so that we can train our people to be perfect Occlumens, while I can teach them on the rationality stuff, and you on the morality rules. More importantly, in the rules that we are about to make, we need to include how to recruit new blood into the Order of Phoenix."

Salazar found that he had never thought methods to train and recruit new bloods as thoroughly as the younger Riddle did.

-_Riddle's previous organization, the Death Eaters, was not organized any better than what Godric and I did back in the old days. How come that this younger Riddle has so many better ideas? Oh, of course, Comrade Shakhov had gotten some thirty thousand wizards working for the same Muggle government organization , and it didn't collapse until nine years after his death, which performed much better than the Death Eaters did after the older Riddle disappeared for the first time. Shakhov might have left some hints on how he ruled Russian wizards in the textbooks. I haven't finished reading the textbooks yet, there are too many new concepts there. Severus is reading that stuff faster than I do, and I constantly need him to explain things to me. Hmm._

-_Moreover, by "rules", does the younger Riddle mean the oath that you throw into the Goblet of Fire, or hit with the Hammer? It surely sounds like it. _

Salazar decided that he needed to read the Russian textbooks faster, and to gain access to either the Goblet of Fire or the Hammer.

Just as Salazar began to wonder whether the Hammer was still in Moscow, the younger Riddle changed the topic, and revealed a great idea that almost made Salazar jumping from the couch.

-_Going to the Moon, so that you can bypass the Interdict of Merlin?! I shall definitely help with this cause. _

And the Boy-Who-Lived continued to reveal another great idea: "As for the origin of magic, Grindelwald has indicated it might have something about the Mirror and the Stone. I formulated some guesses on this subject this morning. Muggles and wizards alike have pretty much searched the entire planet, but nobody has ever found any ruins of a civilization that is greater than ours. However, there is the Mirror and the Stone, both are definitely way beyond Merlin's power. After I thought of the Moon idea, I just began to wonder if the Mirror and the Stone were from an alien civilization, that was millions or even billions of light years away from us, or even from another Universe. And when that civilization collapsed, the makers of the Mirror sent the Mirror and the Stone toward the stars, and they somehow landed on Earth many years ago. Since there are wizarding folks in almost every race, and legends from every civilization talked about lost civilization, I suppose they landed before homo sapiens left Africa. Well, since there are both magical plants and magical animals, they might arrived when all lives on Earth were single cells, and the Mirror and/or the Stone managed to 'tell' the story of a lost civilization to human beings afterwards. And there is also the possibility that our Earth is not the only planet where the Atlanteans left messages, and there might be other Mirrors and Stones on other planets - or still drifting in the Universe. Or maybe, the Atlanteans left other forms of messages somewhere - leaving everything to a single Mirror or a single form of messenger was way too risky. Therefore, by developing magic that can send us to the space, to explore other planets, suns, and galaxies, we might collect more relics, and know more about the Atlantis in general."

_-Oh, this is such a wonderful idea. I shall spare the younger Riddle's life just for this contribution to all wizarding kind. _

_-Ah, wait, there is a test that I can run along the way. Hmm, I need to plant some hints in Severus' head now._


	47. Chapter 47 Space Trave IV, Phoenix

I would like to thank my beta, Kuilin.

* * *

Chapter 47.

Space Travel, Part IV: Biases of the Phoenix

9:48 am, July 21st, 1993

"I have already asked Fawkes, and he has agreed to take this mission - thank Atlantis, Fawkes wasn't locked up in Time together with Headmaster Dumbledore." Harry petted the bird of fire perching on the armrest of his couch, and said to wide-eyed Draco, Severus, and Mad-Eye.

Severus slowly nodded: "I will go to Kazakhstan, then. Hopefully, Baikonur Cosmodrome is as badly managed as the rest of the former Soviet Union is. More importantly, I think I should be the one to go up to the Moon, instead of Miss Granger."

-_Well, this is indeed a proposal that is entirely in character with Severus, self-sacrifice, and things like that. But, how should I phrase "I don't trust you enough for this mission"?_

Before Harry could respond, Hermione said: "Professor Snape, as you already know, I am quite hard to kill, and I am probably blessed with a lot of luck."

"No, Miss Granger, we can't risk your life. Grindelwald and other top wizards in the world may not attack you, and a lot of them would even go as far as to personally protect you from harm, for they do not want the world to end by the retribution from the Universe. However, I am afraid that the vacuum, extreme temperature, meteoroids, and other things up there may not be as reasonable as the top wizards." Severus rebutted reasonably.

Mad-Eye also spoke up: "I agree with Severus on this. It is way too risky to let the lass go up there. However, I think I should be the one." He gave Severus and Draco a pointed look.

It seemed that Severus wanted to scoff, but that black-haired man checked his tongue as he had previously promised Harry that he would. Severus said instead: "I think there is a rather practical reason for me to go: I can understand or semi-understand written materials in fourteen different languages. I know this number is quite unimpressive when comparing to the records of the top wizards in the world, or even that of Crouch Sr., but this is the largest number among us. I think Minerva knows seven or eight, and how many do you know?" Severus politely glanced at Mad-Eye, as if it was an entirely innocent question.

Mad-Eye sent Severus an embarrassed and angry look, but he checked his tongue, and mumbled: "Four."

Harry remembered some of the notes he got from Albus and the Line of Merlin Unbroken. Those notes seemed like complete gibberish and doodlings to him. He couldn't even tell if the notes were written in English, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, or whatever languages - although Harry knew the letters of some of the possible languages looked quite different from that of English or Latin, he literally couldn't tell the difference from the notes.

-_This is a very reasonable concern. We can't pre-select what notes to send up, so many of them might be written in languages that Hermione can't understand. If this can bypass the Interdict of Merlin, eventually, we have to send someone else up. For all I know, a lot of languages use Latin or Cyrillic alphabet, and it would be hard for someone without proper knowledge to tell the difference. Geez, I've heard that the current top wizards all speak hundreds of languages, do they even have time for anything else? Is this the reason that the development of magical society is so slow? Is it because all the clever people spend most of their time studying languages?_

Harry wondered if he could trust Severus on such a mission, and he needed to buy some time before he figured out what to say. Therefore, Harry said instead: "Professor Snape, you must have realized, err, it is very dangerous up there, and, err -"

-_For the sake of Atlantis, how should I properly phrase "you can't tell your best friend what you find up there, even if his brain depends on it"?_

"Of course, Mr. Potter. The consecutive disasters with the Apollo 1 and the Soyuz 1 are considered to be the reason why neither the Soviets nor the Americans tried to send any wizards up to the space again. I suppose, it is much better to be the third wizard to die in a space mission than to die by the hands of You-Know-Who." Severus replied with a white face and a straight back, as if he was going to die the next moment.

Harry had to admit that Severus had his points. Harry suppose, getting killed by Voldemort would be a long and painful process, while death in a failed space mission would be much quicker, and it would involve much less pain. Moreover, to sacrifice your life in the mission to explore the Universe indeed carried much more meaning for the entire human race than getting yourself killed in some pathetic war among wizards.

Harry did a quick mental re-check on the information he just glanced over this morning: _The failure of Soyuz 1 mission in April, 1967 sounded really like a series of electronic malfunctions caused by magic: the solar panel failed first, the orientation detectors followed, then stabilization system was gone, the parachute didn't unfold, and finally, the reserved parachute got entangled. As for how the Apollo 1 failed, err, I need to look it up._

_-However, Severus probably has some misconceptions about the danger involved in space traveling. Well, according to information available to Severus, the two previous trials to send wizards up to the space both failed with disastrous results, so he expects himself to die as well. What he hasn't realized is that, in this mission, we do not rely on Muggle electronics, so it is much safer... _

Hermione's head turned quickly toward the large window in Harry's office first, and then followed by Mad-Eye's magical eye.

"What the f-" The old Auror murmured.

The unfinished F-word from Mad-Eye pretty much expressed the same feeling Harry was experiencing, because he saw some red-golden fire appeared besides the sun, and it was dashing toward the window.

-_A phoenix?!_

The black-haired man also seemed to be stunned by this unexpected development. He stood there like a statue for a whole second, before he dashed toward the window to remove the anti-phoenix charms placed there.

-_Ahh, the phoenix doesn't want to take Severus to the Moon immediately, does it? For that would mean instant death for sure._

Harry wanted to warn Severus, but he couldn't, for the same reason that Albus Dumbledore couldn't tell Harry before he made the decision to refuse his phoenix.

Severus opened the window, and gazed at coming fire.

The golden phoenix entered, letting out a piercing cry.

_COME!_

The bird of light and fire said, and everyone in the room understood.

The black-haired man stared at his phoenix, opened his mouth, and closed it again.

Harry dearly hoped that the bird wouldn't fly away when it heard some completely reasonable statement such as "I need to get a spacesuit and a space capsule first".

Severus took in a deep breath, and said: "Let's go to Baikonur Cosmodrome and get start with the preparation."

The phoenix grabbed Severus' shoulder, and they both disappeared in flames.

All parts of Harry was screaming: _What? That's unfair! I only asked my phoenix to wait for six months, and it left! Did I just need to say that "let's get a preparation that may last six month going" to retain my bird? _

-_And by the way, why was there no bird coming to Hermione before she went to Azkaban? I didn't even tell her that she had a horcrux back then! Is it just because she knew she had unicorn blood in her, and she was less likely to die? Or is it because I turned down my bird for the same mission? Is there a one phoenix per mission thing?_

Judging from Hermione's expression, she was probably thinking along the same line.

In the semi-interposed space of Lady Rowena Ravenclaw's chamber, amongst mountains and mountains of trash, at the back of the Mirror of Noitlov, Lord Salazar Slytherin had a wide grin on his face.

-_Yes, phoenixes are indeed from the Mirror. And as for my two guesses - one, the Atlanteans have a preference for people to explore other stars; or two, you have to believe you have a more than seventy-five percent of chances to die - either one of them, or both of them, must be true. Too bad that I can't test these two separately this time._


	48. Chapter 48 Space Travel V, Power

I would like to thank my beta, Kuilin.

* * *

Chapter 48.

Space Travel, Part V: Power

11:04 pm, July 22nd, 1993 (Almaty time)

Half an hour ago, Severus had already duplicated several spacesuits, and one charred and dented Soyuz space capsule that was said to have brought some Soviet cosmonaut back alive. Severus had also temporarily stabilized the duplicates with a duplicated Stone. However, when Severus briefly examined those strange-looking objects, he had no idea of what all the tubes connected to the spacesuits were supposed to do, nor what each part of that space capsule were used for. Severus also guessed none of the electronics in the duplicated items could be trusted. Therefore, he also needed blueprints, instruction manuals, or something of the sorts.

When Severus was seeking some Muggle in night shift who he could Legilimens near the launching pad, instinct told him of approaching danger.

White-blue shield of Protego Vitamaxima sprang out of Severus' wand without thinking, just in time to block a red bolt of light dashing towards him. Severus felt like someone had dropped some one-ton heavy weight onto his shield, and he was barely able to diverge that weight to somewhere else. In the meanwhile, Severus tried to activate the Portkey (his left sock) to his hotel room in Kiev. Unfortunately, the Portkey couldn't be activated, which meant that the enemy had banned Portkey, probably alongside with other magical travelling methods.

Severus was so familiar with this sort of situation, that it didn't require any thought process for him to throw a wordless Echolocus toward the general direction of where the red bolt had come from. Severus hoped this spell of his own invention, that utilized echo to locate the presence of disillusioned objects, could help him determine the position of the attacker.

Severus saw the green light spiraling toward his way almost at the same time as he heard "Lagann Maxima" spoken by another wizard. The powerful Breaking Drill Hex designed to break Protego Maxima failed in its attempt to crack Severus' powerful Protego Vitamaxima, yet the blow was pretty hard. Severus suspected, if he wasn't using a shield way more powerful than regular shields, he would have lost the battle already, for his opponent obviously wielded more raw magical power than he did.

Severus' Echolocus only returned a blurred image of someone in Muggle clothing wearing a pair of weird goggles when another flash of white light dashed toward Severus. The black-haired wizard dogged this time, and sent out a "Sectumsempra" toward his enemy. Severus didn't actually expect the curse that he invented to work, it was merely a cover for an inconspicuous small pebble that he was wordlessly sending toward his enemy's shield.

The ex-Head of House Slytherin was no advocate for fair play and wizarding dueling rules, so the pebble - or as the Boy-Who-Lived had called Severus' invention, a magical grenade - contained ten different hexes, several potions, and a number of interesting Muggle chemicals. When Severus made this grenade, he had figured, if his enemy was not among the top wizards, they were probably unable to handle ten hexes at once; if he or she was a top wizard besides Voldemort, the spells and potions contained in the pebble might not penetrate the shield, but the strong acid and anesthetic gas might or might not create some problems for the enemy; however, if the enemy _was_ Voldemort, one of the spells contained in the button was actually applied by the Boy-Who-Lived, though Voldemort might have some means to block it anyway. As a matter of fact, the idea of combining multiple charms onto the same magical object wasn't anything new - people working for the Gringotts Travel Office applied a couple dozen Portkey Charms onto Portkeys everyday so that the Portkeys could carry someone from London to New York, it just took incredible skills and precision to immobilize attacking charms, let alone different attacking charms. Severus took quite some pride on being able to stabilize the Boy-Who-Lived's Turning Stunner, and to add a dozen charms of his own. Unfortunately, neither the Boy-Who-Lived nor the Girl-Who-Revived could appreciate the level of difficulty in Severus' achievement; as for people could fully understand how great this was, he didn't want to tell Mad-Eye - just in case he needed to surprise the Auror, and the old lunatic would definitely force Severus to make multiple ones for him; currently, Severus had to temporarily content himself with Lucius' well-practised admirations and praises.

Before Severus could see whether his magical grenade had worked, he found that his opponent was no proponent for fair play, either - a heavy Muggle truck was flying fast toward Severus, apparently summoned here by a wordless Accio charm. When Severus found out, it was already too late to dodge in his human form, and he didn't think his shield could handle the blow of the truck. Severus had to change into his animagus form, and flew upward as fast as he could. The large bat was barely able to escape from the main trajectory of the truck, but some metal pipes flying out of the rear of the truck still smashed into Severus' left leg. Severus thought he had heard the sound of his bones being crushed, and his entire left side became numb.

Before roaring siren deafened the echolocation system of the large bat, echoes already told Severus that his enemy had been knocked down by the device Severus sent. The large bat dropped to the smashed truck, turned into his human form, and threw several stunning and binding hexes toward the dropped figure.

Severus crawled toward his enemy, for he knew he'd better grab that guy and Apparate to somewhere before the Muggle guards got here. Then, Severus cursed his own stupidity.

"Stella, take me ... to the enemy, then bring, b-both of us to the hotel room in Kiev." Severus breathed to his bird of fire.

Two fires later, Severus was lying on the carpet of the hotel room, with his pet phoenix Stella perching by his side, cooing comforting sounds, and crying to his completely deformed left leg.

It was then that Severus had the chance to observe his unconscious enemy. That man looked sixty-something. He had grey hair and beard, a lined face, a pronounced beer belly, and he smelt like a mixture of Vodka and puke.

-_My enemy is drunk?! How powerful is he when he is not drunk?_

Before examining his own injury, Severus threw several other binding hexes to the man lying besides him. Severus felt that he was extremely lucky.

Just as Severus tried to sit up to see the extent of his injury, he suddenly felt another approaching danger. The lost of blood and magical exhaustion from his previous duel had drained Severus so much that his Protego Vitamaxima was only half raised when it was smashed by a red light bolt. Some dizzy moments later, the reason for his "luck" presented himself in front of Severus.

"_Well done, Sseveruss._" His black-haired ancestor hissed. "_This guy iss indeed a good training tool for you._"

-_Oh, Salazar, thank you. And, you know, you could have disabled the Muggle siren, or maybe you could apply disillusion and sound-cancelling charms around your chosen dueling ground._

Severus hissed "_Thank you_" as he sighed inwardly. Severus figured that he need to heal himself fast, and turn back a few hours to deal with the scene.

Salazar wasn't shy about what he did for his descendant, as he absent-mindedly continued: "In this fading age of magic, it isn't that easy to find someone who is stronger than you, but not too strong for you to handle. The power level of this guard for Baikonur Cosmodrome is just right, but he was too drunk when I found him, so I had to wake him up a bit."

-_Err, thank you again?_

"How did this guy gain such power if he is always so drunk?" Salazar commented absentmindedly in English, while his heart was apparently somewhere else.

Severus drank down a bottle of blood-replenishing potion, pondering on what was actually bothering Salazar, and answered at the same time: "A lot of Russians become quite alcoholic - or more alcoholic - after the collapse of the Soviet Union. This might be one."

-_Just as what Tobias Snape did after the mill that he had worked for ten years filed bankruptcy, and there was no need for an engineer specialized the textile industry anywhere in UK._

"Hmm." Salazar scrutinized the drunken wizard besides Severus for a while, and suddenly asked, "_Did the Muggless really build the huge sspace exploring ground all by themselves? Mosstly without magic?_"

Severus then realized what was probably bothering Salazar for the past two days: _Salazar was so shocked by Baikonur Cosmodrome that he was desperately searching for signs of magical construction for the past two days. Plus, due to his shock, Salazar might have simply forgotten about the disillusion and sound-cancelling charms for the dueling ground._

Severus felt quite some sympathy for the medieval blood-purist, and hissed: "_Yess, the Muggless did thiss themsselvess._"

Salazar was silent for a long time, and only the sound of Severus' healing spells and Stella's cooing could be heard.

After a while, Salazar finally began his routine procedure after subduing his enemies, such as taking liberties with their pouches.

"What is this?" Salazar pointed a pair of green goggles, "He found you when he was wearing something like this, didn't he? Although his original pair is apparently lost somewhere, let's test if he can still see you with this when you have Circaduplucem raised."

Severus decided against annoying his mentor in distraught with minor facts such as his broken left leg, concentrated his energy, and casted: "Circaduplucem."

"Oh!" Salazar exclaimed as he held the goggles near his eyes. "I can see a blurred figure from this. Maybe this is something like your, ah, your Echolocation Charm. Very interesting."

Severus cancelled the powerful disillusion spell that was draining his energy, and gasped.

-_Yeah, we need to invent something new to guard against this. By the way, if this guy knew about echolocation, why didn't he guard against it? He was too drunk or something? Or does this work differently?_

Salazar duplicated the goggles, and continued his search. Holding some paperwork, Salazar commented: "Ah, this guy's name is Oleg Konstantinovich Baikov. Didn't the Smirnov guy mention something about a Baikov who was considered to have the potentials to become a Comrade, if his mentor Shakhov hadn't died? If this is that Baikov, today's wizards really have a low bar for top wizards."

"_Yess, that iss the name._" Severus hissed, a sense of pride rising in his heart: _Merlin, I have just defeated someone who has been considered a possible future Comrade eleven years ago, which means… _

"_Thank you._" Severus hissed to his ancestor and mentor with all his sincerity.

Salazar waved his hand, a hint of loss on his face, "Just let me continue my search."

Salazar didn't show any enjoyment towards Severus' compliments and gratitudes as he usually did, and Severus could understand why: _Just as I am climbing the power ladders to become a lord like Albus, or even a lord like Salazar, Salazar is also climbing the ladders to become someone like Merlin. In the past two days, maybe he has found another power ladder, which is potentially more powerful and dangerous than the magic wielded by Merlin himself, which is Muggle technology._

Severus looked at the most powerful wizard in the world, and felt a huge wave of loss washed through him as well: _The idol for all Slytherins for the past one thousand years may be able to build something like Hogwarts by himself, the most legendary wizard in history sacrificed his Life and Time to raise the Most Ancient Hall, yet none of them could construct Baikonur Cosmodrome by themselves. _

After a while, Severus finally commented in English: "Maybe we can figure out how to make the Stone, or the Mirror."

Salazar bitterly smiled.


	49. Chapter 49 Space Travel 6 Prisoner's Dil

I would like to thank my beta, Kuilin.

* * *

Chapter 49.

Space Travel, Part VI: Prisoner's Dilemma

9:05 pm, July 22nd, 1993 (London time)

In his headquarter office, Harry pointed to the map of the Moon, and said to Hermione: "Hermione, let's pick a place for the landing. My current idea is that we should pick a place at the back of the Moon - in case our disillusion charms go wrong, we don't want some Muggle scientists with high power telescopes on the Moon all the time to easily see it. We don't want Muggles satellites to easily see the capsule, either - can we figure out the trajectories of all the satellites orbiting the Moon? And, we may also pick a relatively flat surface, so the capsule wouldn't accidentally fall off a cliff or something. Moreover, it needs to be far away from any of the previous landing sites of Muggle lunar missions -"

Harry's words stopped as a bright light ball appeared in front of him. In the ex-Head of Slytherin's smooth voice, the light ball hissed: "_I have got sseveral ssuitss and a capssule. Meet you somewhere?_"

Harry hissed back: "_My officce. One time passscode: 691146._"

As soon as Harry finished with his spells on the fireplace, the green flames went up, and Severus limped out of the fireplace with his phoenix on his shoulder.

Noticing that Severus was hurt, alarm shot up in Harry's heart. He began to regret that he hadn't called Mad-Eye here, in case that the black-haired wizard had lost in a duel, and was now being mind-controlled by someone. Harry put care into his voice, and asked: "Professor Snape, are you alright?"

Hermione also left the sofa, and asked: "Professor Snape, do we need to call Madam Pomfrey or someone?"

Severus gave Harry and Hermione a courtesy nod, and said: "It's just physical injury, and I have already dealt with it. I will be alright in two days."

As Severus was applying privacy and security charms around them, Harry noticed that Severus' knuckles became white when he casted some of the more strenuous charms.

_-This is not a good sign. The enemy Severus encountered must be quite strong. I do need Mad-Eye to check on him. _

Harry hesitated, and then said: "Professor Snape, Mr. Moody and Draco are on a mission together, should I call them back?"

Severus reacted exactly the same way as Harry had expected - putting his godson together with Mad-Eye probably wouldn't lead to any positive imaginary scenes in Severus' head. The black-haired man paused, and replied: "Yes."

After Severus was done with the series of charms, he sat down in the sofa, and Stella perched besides Severus. There was nothing on Severus' face, but his strained shoulder and the slight tilt towards his right side showed that the man was still in pain.

Harry began to explain: "This morning, Draco had an idea that since we didn't know how precise phoenix travel is for super-long distance travelling, we shouldn't use Hogwarts as the landing ground - in case the space capsule appeared in the air or something. Draco proposed to use one of the places belonged to the Malfoys as landing ground. I have asked Mr. Moody to go with Draco to investigate the list of places Draco provided."

Severus' black eyes flickered, and the black-haired man commented: "A very reasonable thought indeed. Too many eyes on Hogwarts now."

Somehow, Harry sensed that Severus had known that he wasn't trusted: _What did I do wrong?Where did I leak my true feelings? I should really get better with this kind of things. Well, I can probably indicate Severus that I am trying to build our trust. However, why do I have the sense that in recent days, Severus may not even care whether I trust him or not? The Malfoys, yeah, I know they are eager to please me, to show me how useful they are; but Severus, may be he just want to get things done. What happened recently that caused this change in attitude? _

Harry glanced at the phoenix besides Severus, and knew the presence of Stella proved that Severus was a good man. However, in some dark corners of Harry's mind, a sound began to say: _You know, maybe the cynics are right in their disregard for phoenixes - maybe they are just a show of bravery, and maybe they have some preferences for space missions, that's all._

Harry told that part of himself to shut up.

Then, the green flames lit up again. Mad-Eye and Draco stepped out from the fireplace.

Mad-Eye and Severus began their usual check on each other without Harry's command. After they were finished and both of the wizards were clear, Mad-Eye pointed to Severus' left leg and asked: "What happened?"

Severus raised one of his eyebrows, and uttered a name: "Oleg Konstantinovich Baikov."

"What?" Mad-Eye almost jumped, and began to shower another round of spells towards Severus.

_Err, who is this?_ Harry eyed Hermione inquiringly, and it seemed that Hermione didn't know, either. Therefore, that's probably not a famous magical scholar. And according to Mad-Eye's reaction, that Baikov guy seemed like a powerful dark wizard.

Severus raised his Protego Vitamaxima, and proudly announced: "I defeated him."

Mad-Eye's reaction was to throw the pebble that Harry gave him toward Severus, and the black-haired man quickly deflected the pebble toward the window.

Before the window was shattered by the combination of ten simultaneous spells, corrosive potions, and strong acid, Severus jumped out of the couch, enlarged his shield to protect everyone from the blast, and yelled: "Mad-Eye, are you mad? I am not You-Know-Who! I am just three steps from Potter and Granger. Ask what they feel!"

Harry had to confirm Severus on this: "Mr. Moody, I don't feel the sense of DOOM."

Although Severus was currently protecting him, Harry could tell that the black-haired man wasn't too happy about the fact that his own creation was used against him, nor the apparent fact that Harry had handed Mad-Eye at least one of the ten magical grenades that Severus gave Harry - Harry had let Mad-Eye check the grenades without telling Severus, but now it seemed that Harry should have played the honest card and consulted Severus first.

-_Well, I guess now it doesn't take an ex-Head of Slytherin to figure out that I don't trust him._

-_Hopefully, Severus could take some pride in the fact that Mad-Eye considered the magical grenade the most effective weapon against You-Know-Who. _

_-How should I appease Severus with this? Or worse, does him still need it?_

Mad-Eye pointed his wand toward Severus: "Lad, you gained too much power, too quickly. You'd better have a very good explanation for this. Potter, Granger, what are you thinking? Move away from him! There are other dark wizards besides Voldie!"

Harry chose not to move a single step, for if the black-haired wizard in front of them wanted to hurt him or Hermione, he already had the chance; even if the possible hand behind Severus had some evil plots, doing it right in front of Mad-Eye probably wasn't a good idea. Therefore, Harry stayed asked: "Who is this Baikov? Why is defeating him such a big deal?"

"Someone who is considered to be able to join the ranks of the Comrades." Mad-Eye spat, both eyes firmly on Severus, "Stronger than either me or the Snape lad I know."

Harry couldn't see Severus' expression, but he imagined that the black-haired man had rolled his eyes as he answered sarcastically, "You need to update your information, Mad-Eye. That was eleven years ago, before his mentor Shakhov died. After Baikov failed in some power scrambles in Moscow, he was demoted to Kazakhstan, and developed a preference for Vodka ever since. And after the collapse of the Soviet Union, his problems grew worse. So yes, the Baikov I defeated was a wasted drunk. He broke my leg, but I stunned him with the pebble that I invented - and by the way, the device which you just shamelessly used on me." Severus turned to Harry with a blank face, "_I sspoke truth._"

-_Oh, this is such a great example of my failed leadership! And Severus has defeated a drunken Comrade-to-be, which means that Severus is more powerful and/or resourceful than Mad-Eye thought. Maybe Severus has seen the potential of he himself becoming an all powerful lord, so he is no longer as eager to please me as when he just came back._

_-Hmm, the the level of fine control of magic Severus exhibited in combining all the charms, potions and chemicals into a small pebble might be quite remarkable. I have thought since Hermione could learn to overlay seven Portkey Charms to make a Portkey from Moscow to London without too much practise, and wizards working for the Goblins make Portkeys from New Zealand to the Great Britain all the time, overlaying charms wasn't that difficult. Yeah, Mad-Eye didn't use a magical grenade that he himself made, that meant he couldn't make one himself. Otherwise, Mad-Eye would never use something that Severus made against Severus. Oh, and Mad-Eye didn't tell me that he couldn't make good magical grenades after I showed them to him, which meant that he was either overestimating his own abilities, or he was refusing to admit defeat. _

_-How delightful!_

Harry sighed inwardly, and made a note to himself that needed to talk to Severus and Mad-Eye separately afterwards. He confirmed to everyone that Severus had spoken truth, and asked both Severus and Mad-Eye to sit down and be civil to each other.

Draco carefully sat by Severus, and asked in a low voice: "How are you, Godfather?"

Severus' alert black eyes never left Mad-Eye, but his voice took on a hint of warmth as he answered: "Don't worry, it's just physical injury, caused by a stray iron pipe from the back of a truck Baikov tried to throw at me. Easy to heal."

Harry asked: "How was your mission, Professor Snape?"

Severus took out a green pouch from his black pouch, and then from the green pouch, he retrieved three sets of spacesuits, and a charred and dented space capsule that was approximately the size of an adult acromantula.

Harry still had some difficulty in accepting the multiple folding of space - not to mention how the large space capsule was fitted into the small opening of the pouch, yet other wizards seemed to have taken all this for granted. Harry knew this wasn't the best time to inquire about pouch magic, so he put on a happy face, and exclaimed: "Professor Snape, thank you! We can begin to work on them very soon."

Harry guessed that he didn't quite make the exclamation in the right tone to appease Severus, but the black-haired perfect Occlumens showed nothing on his face.

-_Damn! I have only been leading people who are eager to serve me, who would ignore my blunders. Severus ... is a new challenge. What the heck happened between the guilty man in front of me a month ago, and this proud Lord-wannabe, or even Lord-to-be? The most significant change that I know is that he has a godson now. Does having Draco in his life give him a purpose or something? But it doesn't feel quite right. Unfortunately, Draco wouldn't be of much help in figuring this out. As for Mad-Eye, nah, he would only give answers such as Severus has been serving Grindelwald and/or Voldemort and/or some other dark wizards recently._

Severus nodded, and said: "Mr. Potter, and Miss Granger, maybe you two have some advantages in figuring out what everything on them does, so that we can know what to do to construct a magical equivalent. I encountered Baikov before I could get blueprints or manuals for these items. I suppose, I can go back to Kazakhstan after my leg is healed."

Harry had no other choice than to appear to be a caring leader: "Professor Snape, please take enough time to rest, and maybe have Madam Pomphrey to check on you."

Severus nodded again as he said: "Mr. Potter, I have a suggestion on our animal test. I think we should put a snake and a note with Interdicted magic written in Parseltongue on it, just to see if going to the Moon is enough to bypass the Interdict of Merlin. I can use my healing time to select a snake, and teach it how to read."

-_Err, what?_

"Parseltongue has a written form?" Harry asked in surprise. "Can you lie when you write things down in Parseltongue?"

"Yes, and no, for your questions." Severus seemed to be a little amused by Harry's ignorance, "Generally speaking, Parseltongue resembles Old English. For example, the spelling of words isn't really fixed, and for the most part, you just need to spell the words out from the letter-to-sound correspondence."

"Can someone who can't speak Parseltongue learn to read and write in it?" Harry asked.

Apparently, this had never occurred to Severus, for the man hesitated, and answered: "I don't know."

-_This is HUGE! The pronunciation of Parseltongue is way too hard for a normal person to grasp, but learning some snake-ish letters may not be that difficult. If there is some method to force everyone to speak truth, we may even figure out a way to partially solve the prisoner's dilemma!_

Just as Harry got all excited about the idea, in a small corner of his mind, Hufflepuff spoke: _Have you forgotten something? Severus has just proposed to send a sapient being who is made to follow orders given by Parselmouths to space, not to mention that sapient being is clever enough to learn to read._

Slytherin sneered: _Or what? Sending Severus up to the Moon first? He is clearly sapient, clever enough to read and write, and creative enough to invent magical devices, charms and potions._

Harry decided to consult Hermione in private about the moral dilemma, but he could decide on another matter now: "Professor Snape, could you teach everyone here how to read and write in Parseltongue? Err, maybe you and Mr. Moody can learn to trust each other after you can both write in Parseltongue."

Severus seemed to want to roll his eyes or sneer, but he stopped himself, and said: "Of course."

_OK, Step One is done. _Harry took in a breath, and turned to Mad-Eye: "Mr. Moody, how did the investigation of the Malfoy farms go?"


	50. Chapter 50 Space Travel 7

Chapter 50.

Space Travel, Part VII: Domestic Problems

1:13 pm, July 24th, 1993 (London time)

Harry had a very wide smile as he emerged in Stella's phoenix flames together with Hermione and Severus in his headquarter office. He had just had the greatest book raid ever - Severus had just led them for a tour to the British Library. With the help of Severus, Mad-Eye, three Auror trios, a number of bewitched Muggle librarians, and several duplicated Stones, they now had an extended library with approximately eight hundred thousand books on mathematics, physics, chemistry, material science, biology, medicine, engineering, psychology, history, linguistics, and archeology, among other fields. According to Severus' and Mad-Eye's estimates, the duplicated Stone could at least stabilize the duplicated non-magical books for a couple dozen years.

For the past five hours, the adult wizards duplicated shelves and shelves of books, while Harry and Hermione were responsible for pointing out which subject they needed to duplicate, applying the duplicated Stone on the duplicated shelves, and transferring the duplicated shelves into the many trunks they brought there. Harry and Hermione had wanted to duplicate more books - they hadn't even got anywhere near the science fictions region yet. However, all the adults - including Severus, who had a phoenix to sustain him - had shown signs of magical exhaustion by 1 pm, and the three Auror trios had already drank several bottles of magic-replenishing potions, so they had to come back for security reasons.

Although not _completely_ satisfied, for you could never have enough books, Harry had already rated today among one of the top ten days in his life.

After landing, Harry turned around and cheerfully thanked Severus: "Professor Snape, thank you so much! Duplicating the British Library - this is one of the top fifty most brilliant ideas that I ever know."

Severus smugly smiled, and tilted his head.

Harry noted to himself that Severus seemed to enjoy praises, and exclaimed happily: "Now we can continue our work on the space stuff with answers in almost any field of Muggle science. After Draco, my father and Hermione's parents get here, I guess we can start again."

As house-elves began to serve them with lunch, and Harry started working on the fireplace, Severus used this time to test Hermione on the written Parseltongue they had learned yesterday. "Miss Granger, please use this time to write down the all letters of Parseltongue in the correct order."

When Hermione began to draw the snake-like letters, Harry had a strange feeling. This was one of the few times that Harry had learned things faster and better than Hermione did. For Harry and Draco, the twenty-eight letters of Parseltongue seemed something resembling Greek letters, which were definitely different from the English letters, but not that difficult to learn or to recognize. Once they knew the letters, to spell out Parseltongue words and sentences according to a number of simple phonetic rules felt like a breeze - Parseltongue didn't even have any letter or combination of letters that should be pronounced differently under different circumstances. However, for Hermione and Mad-Eye, it was another story. Harry had already tried to teach Hermione Parseltongue before this, but even with Hermione's advanced auditory system, she still said that all the hisses sounded almost identical to her. As for the written form of Parseltongue, although Hermione's memory was better than anyone Harry knew, the Parseltongue letters still looked like doodling and sprawling snakes to her. She could remember the shapes of the letters that Severus wrote down, but if the same letters written by Harry and Draco were presented to her, or if Severus wrote down the letters again a little bit differently, it was still hard for her to recognize them. As for poor Mad-Eye, Harry couldn't help but to feel sympathy for the old Auror who seemed to prefer dueling Voldemort than learning Parseltongue.

When Hermione was one-third of the way done with the letters, Mad-Eye appeared in the green flames, followed by Dad and Draco. Mad-Eye nodded to Harry, and disappeared in the flames again, probably going to the Grangers.

Dad exchanged greetings with Severus, nodded to Hermione who was struggling with some letters, and the delightly asked: "How is your day, Harry?"

Harry could see that Dad's mood was better than he had been for quite a while. It seemed that having a student again, even if it is just Draco for a few hours, had done a lot of good to Professor Michael Verres-Evans .

Hufflepuff sadly said: _You know, we should have thought of this earlier. We shouldn't wait until Hermione and we were discussing about the trajectories of satellites, while Draco knew little about Newtonian physics to think of it. We should have cared more about Mom and Dad earlier._

Slytherin untimely suggested a possible explanation: _I know why we did it - until yesterday, we didn't think Mom and Dad as someone useful. As a matter of fact, for the most part of the past year, we were trying to keep everyone away from Muggle science, just in case some idiot would consider transfiguring antimatter as a good idea._

Harry hid his thoughts from the surface of his persona, and happily answered: "One of the best days ever!"

"Really? Should you tell me about even this?" Dad joked.

_Actually, we shouldn't. We need to let Mad-Eye erase this part of his memory afterwards. _Slytherin said.

Harry knew Slytherin was right to a certain extent, but the Harry under the mask couldn't help but to feel overwhelmed by a wave of sorrow. On the surface, Harry grinned and answered: "You bet."

Dad laughed, as if this little bit of sharing of his son's life was enough for him.

Hufflepuff almost cried: _What have we done?!_

"Harry, I think you should let more of your friends learn science, or is that prohibited as well?" Dad jokily said, and nodded to Severus, "Young Mr. Malfoy and I had quite a delightful morning. And your godson is quite a bright and charming young man, Professor Snape."

Draco smiled with a hint of shy and awkwardness, as a proper thirteen-year-old should do.

Harry could see that Draco had won Dad's heart within a few hours - Dad even began to praise Draco to his godfather, instead of showing off Harry, but -

_Wow, see how good Draco is at satisfying Dad's desire for a "normal" child prodigy? If he is not useful for other stuff, we can at least use him to entertain our parents. _Slytherin commented.

Severus' smile was quite sincere as he replied, "Thank you, Professor Verres-Evans. Your son is the most extraordinary young man that I have ever known."

Harry still had some problems with this kind of "normal" talk between guardians of child prodigies. However, he was way better at controlling himself by this point, and he decided that he could at least indulge Dad this much. As for Severus Snape, that man probably had little idea about how to actually raise a child, but he had enough experience talking to his students' parents. And being an extraordinary Legilimens, Severus definitely knew what most parents wanted to hear.

-_And Severus probably wants to secure Draco's position, just in case that he dies in space exploration._

At this time, the ultimate nightmare that represented disastrous "normal" parenting appeared in green flames in the form of Roberta and Leo Granger. The very idea that he might end up with _them_ as his parents-in-law could crush most of Harry's romantic thoughts about Hermione at a time of this.

In a brief moment, Harry regretted having including Dr. and Dr. Granger in this project, but Slytherin quickly reminded him that Dr. Roberta Granger was the only one who had some scientific upbringing and could understand Russian. Spending her youth years in the turbulent 1960s in Cambridge meant that Roberta had once been a fan of Trotsky. Harry supposed, he should be grateful that Roberta grew out of it after graduation, and she didn't end up like the Cambridge Five.

Moreover, Hufflepuff demanded: _We have already caused them enough worries. If Hermione can deal with their parenting, we can deal with it as well. _

Slytherin agreed: _Just eat your sandwich, and let them have small talks with Severus and Draco. Draco is an expert in entertaining idiots in the way they prefer, so they will be less troublesome to us. _

After Mad-Eye finished applying privacy and security charms around them, and Severus had given a perfect grade on Hermione's recitation of Parseltongue letters (which led to some horrible gloating from Leo Granger), Dad became Harry's hero: "So, what is this thing that you need our help, and then erase our memories with?"

-_Oh, Dad, I love you so much._

Harry gratefully began his explanation about their plan for space travel. Of course, he just mentioned that by going to the Moon, they might reduce the interference between magic and Muggle electronics, and conveniently omitted anything about the Interdict of Merlin.

Dad's eyes sparkled and he laughed when he heard about this morning's raid of the British Library. It seemed like Dad would like to become best pals with Severus within the next second. Somehow, this effect was lost on Dr. and Dr. Granger.

To Harry's great relief, the part that Severus was going to the Moon was enough of an excitement to Dr. and Dr. Granger, which proved that their Muggle science education hadn't completely failed. Harry briefly wondered if they would be this excited when they knew that Harry's first choice of wizarding astronaut was actually their daughter. However, Harry found that he had gotten so much better at controlling his tongue than he was one and a half years ago.

"Dad, could you help us figure out a proper landing spot on the Moon?" Harry asked, and then turned to Dr. and Dr. Granger, "Uncle Leo, would you try to figure out how the life support system works in the spacesuits? And maybe also try to figure out how much oxygen, water and other things we need. Aunt Roberta, there are quite some plates in Russian on the space capsule, and I am afraid Professor Snape is not familiar with the technological terms, would you two work on that?"

Leo Granger gave Harry a strange look, as if wondering why Harry, instead of Severus or Mad-Eye, was giving the order.

-_Oh, right, I haven't established my dominance in front of the Grangers, and Hermione probably has a hard time conveying this idea to them as well._

Dad became Harry's savior again, as he happily answered: "Of course!"

To Harry's relief, Dr. Leo Granger hesitantly followed suit with a nudge from his wife.


	51. Chapter 51 Space Travel 8 Bionics

I would like to thank Kuilin for editing this chapter.

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Chapter 51.

Space Travel, Part VIII: Bionics

8:25 am, July 25th, 1993 (Kiev time)

Severus skimmed through the third page of _Magical Pravda_ delivered to his hotel room in Kiev, and found that Baikov was merely fined twenty galleons by the Kazakhstan Ministry of Magic for the incident where he reportedly got too drunk and thought flying trucks would be fun. Of course, _Magical Pravda_, which was published in Moscow, reported this in a mocking way - probably to show its readers what a chaos the other former Soviet states were in, so that its readers would feel better about their own lives, which wasn't great, either. It seemed that after Soviet Union collapsed, the magical society in Kazakhstan finally reversed back to how things should be run in the magical society: the most powerful wizard in the nation could safely disregard rules set by regular people as long as they pleased, instead of obeying the ridiculous rules set by Shakhov or the laws accepted by Dumbledore, where bureaucrats like Smirnov could intimidate the students of Comrades. Therefore, Baikov, who was currently the most powerful wizard in Kazakhstan, and who could be quite unreasonable after several bottles of Vodka, escaped the incident on July 22nd unscathed.

Although Severus agreed that powerful witches and wizards should have privileges, and he didn't want the innocent man to be in too much trouble, this quick turn of events certainly didn't quite work in Severus' way. Severus got mentally prepared to duel Baikov or someone like Baikov again, and planned his journey accordingly.

Severus briefly praised himself for the many benefits that the raid of the British Library provided. For example, before the raid, none of the people on their side knew that NPP Zvezda was the primary spacesuit manufacturer in former Soviet Union. And although the Boy-Who-Lived had some vague memory of the name "RSC Energia", his memory didn't quite put that name together with the Soyuz spaceships, nor did he knew where the company was. Now with the results from the book raid, Severus had a clear idea about where to go, and what to get from these places. However, a trip to Baikonur Cosmodrome was still necessary, for they needed more detailed information on space launches and retrievals. Moreover, three days ago, due to Severus' injury and fatigue, and the fact that he was running out of time on his Time-Turner, Severus' search and investigation of Baikov wasn't as thorough as he hoped - he didn't even get any notes with things that he couldn't understand.

After going over the list of things that he would need to get from NPP Zvezda, Severus applied the usual sequence of concealing charms, plus one extra - according to the Boy-Who-Lived and his dad, since the color saw through the green goggles that Baikov wore exhibit more intense colors for the fireplace than a human being, the goggles were some sort of heat detection - something called "infrared". Thanks to the creativity of generations of criminals, Mad-Eye already knew a charm that could mask the true temperature of things, and it could work against the green goggles. Therefore, Severus added a "Temperacelus" charm to his usual sequence. This matter also served as a warning to Severus, that he wasn't the only wizard who could think of other detection methods besides the regular sense of human being. Professor Verres-Evans had said that certain kinds of snakes had infrared detectors as well. Severus wondered if the sneaky Blue Krait had the thing called "pit organs", and conveniently hid the fact from everyone. Well, considering the fact that Severus hadn't told Lucius about his echolocation system - though the blond bastard probably had already figured it out - Severus could only blame his own stupidity and ignorance of Muggle biology.

Severus sighed inwardly, and applied the same sequence of charms on Stella. "Stella, let's go to the southeast side of Moscow, and get both of us some material for spacesuits."

Stella cawed, and a flame later, Severus began to look for proper Muggles to Legilimens for the exact location of the spacesuit production place in NPP Zvezda. After two days in Baikonur Cosmodrome, Severus already got better with identifying proper Muggles and navigating through the ugly and clunky Russian buildings. Moreover, luckily for Severus, although certain signs showed that Zvezda had once been guarded by wizards like Baikov, it was no longer the case now. A few hours later, Severus got duplicates of multiple spacesuits that looked different from the ones that he already had, plus enough lithium oxide, active charcoal, compressed oxygen and air tanks, and other consumable supplies he directly stealed - Severus didn't want to trust his life on transfigured Muggle chemicals. Judging from the level of theft that became so common these days in this country, Severus supposed the Muggle wouldn't even be surprised. However, just to be safe, Severus still fabricated a scene where some Muggle manager took the materials, and inserted the memory into the mind of two Muggle storehouse keepers, and left them some rubles as tips.

The trip to RSC Energia went quite smoothly as well, where the biggest challenge had been how to find the things he needed.

By 7:30 pm Moscow time, which was 4:30 pm Almaty time, it was time for Baikonur Cosmodrome again. Severus licked his lips, and said to Stella: "Stella, let's go to somewhere outside the apartment building of Baikov's home."

This time, Severus decided that he would subdue Baikov and search his apartment first, instead of worrying where that wizard would be all the time while he was in Baikonur Cosmodrome - Severus really wanted to know the secrets of Shakhov's Hammer among other Interdicted magic, and there was no better time to grab them than before his trip to the Moon.

Severus landed among several yellow apartment buildings. By this point, Severus already got used to the strange custom the Russian Muggles adopted - for some reason, all the apartment buildings across the former USSR looked almost identical to each other, and a wizard could easily mistake an apartment complex in Kiev for one in Almaty. Severus needed check the plates on the buildings and his echolocation charm to know which one was the building that he was looking for. To Severus' slight surprise, his echolocation charm pointed out at least five apartments that had magically concealed something. Severus reasoned that there could be other magical guards who lived around here. Severus could see that the magic on three of these apartments showed signs of wearing out, which might mean that owners were no longer maintaining them. Severus decided that he need to check these places as well, just in case it was some sort of cover-up on Baikov's side.

Severus focused his echolocation charm on the apartment that was three windows away from Baikov's supposed home, where the window was opened a slit, and -

A stout figure with a bottle in one hand and a wand in another was peeking out from the window.

It seemed that Baikov, who was once considered a Comrade-to-be, wasn't a completely wasted idiot after all. Probably, he had developed some suspicion on the events three days ago. And Baikov probably had occupied vacant apartments, and he had magically altered the inner structure of the part that he took as residence.

Severus knew that challenging a prepared wizard who was more powerful than yourself at his own place was an extremely bad idea. Therefore, he needed to cheat.

Severus thought for a while, and then turned towards the nearest liquor store. Severus estimated, if there were a long queue of people lining up in the front door of the liquor store, Baikov should be able to notice the commotion, and might decide to add something to his Vodka storage. If this failed, Severus wouldn't lose much except some cheap liquor, which, for some reason, worked better than money in equal amounts in the former USSR.

A few memory charms later, the two salesman there both thought that they had gotten quite some Vodka cheaply from black market, and they needed to sell the hard liquor after hours behind their manager's back. Therefore, after the manager left after the store was closed, the two salesman returned, and secretly called their friends. Within ten minutes, people began to rush toward the liquor store, and all left with quite some Vodka that Severus secretly put in the storage . And as good Russians did, a lot of people began to line up upon seeing that there were people in front of a store, without even asking what the line was for. And after they knew it was cheap Vodka, many rushed to get more cash.

As Severus had expected, Baikov noticed the commotion. And Severus was sure, with some simple charms, Baikov could hear what the long line was for.

Maybe years of alcohol consumption had compromised Baikov's judgement, maybe Shakhov had taught his student too well, Baikov didn't directly Apparate to the storage room of liquor store, and took liberties from there. Instead, the most powerful wizard in Kazakhstan left his home on foot to join the line for cheap Vodka.

The second that Baikov stepped near Severus' magical trap at the entrance of the apartment building, Severus simultaneously trigger five magical pebbles, three fully loaded with Breaking Drill Hexes, stunners, powerful sleeping hexes, and anesthesia gases, and the other two loaded with light, sound and shock-wave cancelling charms.

The most powerful wizard in Kazakhstan was a lot more alert and powerful when he was not fully drunk, but clearly, he wasn't thirty times more powerful than Severus. Baikov's shield and magical protective items all winked out before all the spells on the three attacking pebbles were released. Needless to say, Severus bounded Baikov with more ways before he cleaned the scene.

"Stella, let's go to the hotel room in Kiev." Severus grabbed Baikov, and said.

A flame later, Severus began his thorough search on Baikov and his pouch. Just as Severus was half way through with Baikov's pouch, Stella suddenly cawed. Severus' wand moved faster than his mind, it was after Severus jabbed his wand on the throat of the grey-haired man on the floor that Severus realized Baikov's fingers twitched.

"Don't move!" Severus demanded with the best American accent he could manage. Thanks to Shakhov Vocational School, Baikov should be able to understand English.

Baikov slowly opened his eyes, and saw Severus as he took off the disillusionment.

Of course, Severus still have some magical and non-magical concealments on, he just showed his face to have a smoother conversation.

"It was you, I know it!" The man on the floor groaned with a heavy Russian accent.

"You know what I want." Severus calmly said, just in case he could cheat some extra information out from Baikov.

"You're here after the Muggle space technology, aren't you? Where are you from? France? Japan? China? India?" Baikov asked instead.

Severus felt a bit ashamed of his Muggle countrymen that they weren't even considered potential opponents in the space race, and Severus supposed, Baikov didn't mention the Americans because the Americans already got what they wanted. Plus, Baikov might have been trained to give true but elusive information to interrogators by the KGB, which added problems to this conversation.

"It doesn't matter where I am from. I can be quite generous." Severus decided to directly ask, "What progresses have Russians made with magic and space technology?"

A flash of pain passed through Baikov's blue eyes as he answered: "Ah, not much. You know, magic doesn't work well with electronics."

"What were the successes and failures? What happened when you tried to send wizards up to the space?" Severus knew Baikov wasn't giving any real information. He asked more specifically.

"Wizards blow up rockets, I assume you already know?" Baikov smiled sardonically. "Or maybe I shouldn't tell you, so there is a chance that one of yours would become a gigantic fire."

Severus briefly wondered if he should try torture, but the disillusioned Stella cried angrily toward him.

Severus sighed inwardly: _Merlin, should I give up all my evil thoughts from now on? _

Baikov heard phoenix's cry, and exclaimed: "A phoenix?! You have a phoenix? You are from the Great Britain!"

Severus almost groaned. Well, given the fact that the only known domesticated phoenix was Fawkes, it wasn't a hard guess - in recent history, there had been one owned by a New Zealand wizard when he fought against Grindelwald, but the owner passed away under some mysterious conditions in the 1950s; the phoenix owned by a brave and powerful Russian sorceress, but the witch was killed by none other than Grindelwald himself; and Severus heard a Gryffindor got a phoenix shortly after Severus graduated Hogwarts, but that student failed to save anyone he wanted to save, and was killed in the first mission.

"How did you know that I didn't get a new one?" Severus replied.

Baikov replied: "Nah, too unlikely. - Wait, you want to, you get this phoenix to, to - " The most powerful wizard in Kazakhstan stuttered.

-_Shit! Should I erase his memory, and do this again?_

Baikov was relieved, and excited: "Oh, you have a phoenix! You can't be an evil guy."

Severus was quite annoyed when someone pointed out that he couldn't torture or kill innocent people anymore, unless he could honestly explain to Stella that by not doing so might endanger an entire planet - which was clearly not the case here. Severus gritted his teeth, and considered erasing Baikov's memory, and conduct this conversation all over again.

Baikov continued: "How did you get this phoenix? We wanted to try that, phoenix, but Dumbledore was the only one who owned it!"

"Dumbledore didn't agree to try this idea?" Severus was more surprised about the implication that Dumbledore didn't agree than the fact that someone had wanted to try.

"Oh, we didn't ask. I guess the Americans weren't exactly friends with Dumbledore, either." Baikov was still quite excited.

Severus supposed, he shouldn't be too surprised about the fact that the world was loaded with politically shrewd idiots, and this made him feel a little bit better for his upcoming mission, since nobody had failed with a phoenix-powered space mission yet.

Baikov continued: "You know, I have always been thinking, when I want to end - OK, by the end of my life, I would get into a space capsule, grab it, and get it to side-along Apparitions with me multiple times, and see where I can get to until -"

Severus knew the distance one could Apparate had an limit. For someone like Severus himself, the limit for one Apparition was approximately eight hundred miles; and Severus estimated, if he were to grab something as heavy as a space capsule to side-along Apparate with him, the distance would be limited to somewhere around forty miles, not to mention that he needed to keep the relative position of himself and the space capsule all the time. Severus did a quick estimate, and found that he himself would probably lost the grasp on the relative position, and be killed within four or five Apparitions, which wasn't even enough distance for bypassing the half-botched Interdict on Electronics, not to mention the Interdict of Merlin. Even if Baikov was twenty times stronger than Severus, Severus still estimated that Baikov would be killed before he reached the so-called "geostationary orbit". Severus hoped he had spelt the name of the orbit right - anyway, according to the Boy-Who-Lived, that's where a lot of satellites stayed. However, from the way Baikov spoke about it, Severus guessed that had been Baikov's suicide plan for quite a while - maybe because of the collapse of the Soviet Union, or maybe because of his failure in the power games in Moscow, Baikov wanted to pursue something more meaningful than the petty mundane matters on Earth. However, it seemed Baikov had given up on an immediate suicide plan, probably thanks to the news about the Stone. And this meant -

Severus smiled to himself, and asked: "What preparations have you made for your plan?"

Baikov gazed Severus for quite a while, then answered: "If you swear you are going to the space, and tell me the result if you succeed, I will tell you."

Severus frowned: "You want an Unbreakable Vow? Are you trying to have a third person here as an escape plan?"

Baikov answered: "No! You see the golden Vodka bottle that you've casually thrown over there? It is an one-time Hammer - you know the Hammer, right? I can tell you how to make an one-time Hammer if you come back alive."

Severus thought of it for a while, and then answered: "I have to block your memory for a while, and you can't reveal it to anyone or anything in any way or form at anytime under any circumstances. And I have other requests as well."

In another room of the same Muggle hotel, Salazar let out a sigh: _In the name of Atlantis, one day, I shall tell Godric how much work I have done to Baikov and Severus to make them this gullible. Otherwise, I can hardly figure out a way to let Severus explain the source of my many uninterpretable notes. And this would certainly undermine Severus' relationship with my crazy descendant._

-_By the way, the Boy-Who-Lived's Muggle stepfather said that some snakes have pit organs, but I don't have it. Hmm, I heard Merlin could adapt many animagus forms, wonder if I can do something about my animagus form, or if I can change into another type of snake._

_-And there is something else that I need to figure out. It seems that the mudblood unicorn girl can learn to read written Parseltongue. How can this be possible? Is one of the two squib servants my descendant? This is such a dreadful thought._

Note: Kraits don't have pit organs, so Lucius was wrongfully blamed here - his reputation didn't do him a lot of good here.


	52. Chapter 52 Space Trave 9: PC or NPC?

I would like to thank Kuilin for betaing this chapter.

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Chapter 52.

Space Travel, Part IX: PC or NPC?

7:34 am, July 26th, 1993

In his headquarter office, Harry subconsciously tossed the scrambled eggs around in his plate, and sighed: "So, that's about all what Severus has told me on his dealings with Baikov - in Parseltongue. Hermione, I am not so sure what to make of the whole matter."

Hermione's face was also grim. She said: "Harry, I need a while to think about it."

Harry nodded, and said: "Take your time."

_Judging from his interactions with Baikov, Severus Snape is acting all by himself now. _Slytherin coldly said. _We shouldn't allow this kind of behavior. The Malfoys are leverages that we can use against him._

Hufflepuff quietly reminded him: _Severus has never sworn his loyalty to us, remember? And we all agree that there is nothing wrong with people having their own judgement. Moreover, although this might not mean the same to us as Hermione's life being in danger, we do have to realize that Severus' life is at risk - he surely cherishes his own life, and Lucius and Draco care about his life to a certain degree. Severus' judgement called him to maximize his chances of staying alive. _

_That's exactly the problem. I agree people can have their own judgement, as long as they don't act on it. _A corner that was much darker than Slytherin seethed through his teeth. _We need to invent something like the Mark of Light._

Gryffindor roared in righteous fury, Hufflepuff gasped in absolute horror, and even Slytherin frowned.

Harry told his dark side to shut up.

Ravenclaw spoke up: _Hey, aren't we even curious about what Severus got from Baikov? From my point of view, we can't call Severus' agreement with Baikov a bad one. Let's face it, Baikov was a student of the most powerful wizard in Russian - a lot of people have ranked Shakhov right below Dumbledore and Grindelwald. Severus managed to get quite a stack of notes from Baikov on Interdicted magic, and he did this without even promising Baikov that he would tell him about any of the magic he gained from the notes afterwards. This was a miracle, no less. If we were given the chance, we would definitely do the same as Severus did. _

-_Err…_

Even Dark Harry had to admit that Severus had somehow pulled out a miracle - without consulting Harry. It is well-known that it was very hard to get information from powerful wizards who were also perfect Occlumens. The world's top wizards had tried to extract information from Grindelwald for almost fifty years now - Lucius had said he guessed some had secretly tried torture, but obviously that nothing had broken someone like Grindelwald. Moreover, Baikov knew how to make an one-time Hammer, therefore he probably already sealed himself against unwanted release of information, just like "Nicolas Flamel" did.

Slytherin pondered: _Baikov has worked in the Cosmodrome for eleven years, he had done some serious preparations for his suicidal space mission for several months before the news about the Stone stopped his suicidal thoughts, and he continued that work now and then as a hobby after a few bottles of Vodka. Therefore, if we want to maximize the probability of success of this mission, which is possibly vital for winning this war, then retrieving information from Baikov is a good thing to do. And with Baikov's stolen and magically modified Soyuz return capsule and his semi-finished spacesuit, this could have saved us months of time, and hence this is a vital opportunity. However, I have a feeling that Severus is increasingly seeing himself as an ally to us, not as a subordinate. We need to quench this idea, and have a tighter leash on Severus - this is for Severus' own good. That man has troubles with seeing dangers even when it is right in front of him. He himself confessed on that shortcoming a month ago._

Hufflepuff quietly suggested: _Hey, maybe it is time for us to learn how to have an ally..._

And Hufflepuff's arguments were cut off by Hermione: "Harry, I think I would agree with you on certain points that you might argue, such as security implications. There are several things that I would like to point out. First, although I still think Severus has some problems telling the differences between right and wrong, Stella would cry at him if he were wrong, so this decision can't be evil. Second, with Stella on Severus' side to help with character judgment, Baikov probably isn't a bad person. However, as a matter of fact, I am more concerned for you than the whole matter - you weren't that excited about Baikov's desire to explore space, or that you might have finally met someone who shares your dream."

-_Ahh…_

Harry didn't quite know what to say. He had always thought that exploring other galaxies would be the next great step for sapient beings on Earth, and he had often complained about why so many intelligent people just busied themselves with mundane daily matters, instead of something that could save the entire race. However, when another clever wizard turned out to have similar ideas, Harry's own mind also focused more on the pity strugglings among human beings.

-_Have I fallen into the same trap that has prevented humans from attaining true greatness?_

Hermione continued: "Harry, I think I see what the problem is. You see most people you don't know as NPCs. You see me as a PC, so you are really excited when I share values with you; Severus is probably somewhere between a PC and a NPC in your mind, so you are also quite happy when it turned out that he wanted to revive someone, too. However, when someone you don't know - such as Baikov - also shares some rare ideas with you, it's more or less like a great plot in a science fiction book."

-_Err…_

Hufflepuff said: _Hermione is right. We do see most people as NPCs. And the previous horrible idea about the Light Mark is a perfect example of this train of thought. By imposing the Light Mark, we reduce our followers into NPCs in a RPG game. And that's exactly what Voldemort has done by the Dark Mark - reducing people to NPCs. And see what came out of that - Severus' betrayal might or might not fit into the Prophecy that led to Voldemort's first failure; Voldemort ended up floating in the space for ten years because he didn't tell Bellatrix where to find even one of his many horcruxes; and Voldemort had no idea that two of his most powerful servants were Parselmouths... _

Gryffindor also raised a point: _You know who had actually imposed a "Light Mark" to many people? Comrade Mikhail Andreyevich_ _Shakhov. And see how that ended up for the cause he fought for - his "NPCs" overthrew Soviet Union after he died, just to get rid of the "Light Mark". Remember, Shakhov's cause was only Communism and the Soviet Union. Do you want to imagine what our subordinates would try to get rid of their "Light Mark"?_

Even Slytherin agreed: _Now even I feel lucky that we refused Professor Quirrell's suggestion about the Light Mark the moment he raised it._

Cold sweat ran down Harry's spine even as he felt lucky.

"... Treating people as PCs is also benefiting us in other ways. Remember our first mock battle? Back then, Sunshine won the battle by combining the wits of other people. Like you told me, when Severus and Lucius had - or they thought they had - good ideas, they told you about the ideas. I bet they never did that with You-Know-Who. Harry, not only people who are near us are PCs -" Hermione paused in mid-sentence, and carefully asked, "What happened, Harry?"

"Err, I wholeheartedly agree with you, that people are not NPCs. And I shall never impose any Light Mark -" Harry found that he had let his mind slip, but he decided to finish his sentence anyway, so that Hermione would know another circumstance where she had to stop him or anyone else who might try the same, "- onto anyone."

"You, what?" Hermione asked in disbelief.

Harry then explained to Hermione how Dark Harry had come up with the idea, and how the result of the Cold War had taught him better.

Hermione stared at Harry in wide eyes. After quite a while, she said with a bit of stutter: "O-OK, Harry, I understand. And, of course, I would try my best to stop anyone who would try this approach."

Harry gravely nodded.


	53. Chapter 53

Chapter 53.

Space Travel, Part X: Expansion

8:50 am, July 27th, 1993

In Harry's headquarters office, Harry observed the ex-Lord Malfoy who was again "brought back to give testimony", and estimated how much influence this man would have on Severus Snape as the blond continued to speak: "Lord Potter, there is another matter that I have to report to you. According to the Russian guard whom I recently bribed, Grindelwald spoke to Dimitrov in private three times in the recent two days. I think they are up to something, maybe an escape plan, or something more sinister in nature. I think Grindelwald might be trying to show us that if we don't agree to his request, he will make it happen anyway."

-_Great. Now, not only the second most powerful dark wizard in the world is planning an escape, but also his accomplice may or may not be Voldemort._

Harry sighed inwardly. He would really like to spend all his time on the space stuff, but there were always so many petty squabbles between human beings that might lead to instant world destruction. And Harry's current deadline for gaining power that most wizards could understand was in the middle of September, when Grindelwald would receive his Stone treatment. Harry dearly hoped that Severus' trip to the Moon would result in something on how to save Dumbledore from Time. Otherwise, Harry would have to either come up with some new schemes against the "nice (aka, less predictable)" Voldemort, or rely on Lucius' probably-not-that-reliable diplomatic skills until someone on their side became a top wizard.

"Mr. Malfoy, if Grindelwald escapes, and in the worst case, allies with You-Know-Who, who can help us?" Harry asked.

It seemed that Lucius had already thought of this matter, for he immediately answered: "Lord Potter, I am afraid that the rest of the world has some misconceptions on the potential danger of our enemies, and they also wonder what we can do. I suppose, if we continue our current policy, the majority of the top wizards in the world would hold back their hands and watch, as what they had done in the late seventies and early eighties. They would very much like to let the two most notorious dark wizards rob the Stone from us, and then they themselves would become the hero who save the day, and study the Stone and the Mirror as a reasonable reward for their great contribution for humanity. Of course, unless we promise a limited number of them that they and they alone can have the privilege to study the origin of magic while others cannot. Lord Potter, if you desire the later approach, I have a list of names who have reasonable good reputations for your consideration."

Harry sighed: "Mr. Malfoy, please write down the names, and their advantages and disadvantages, and I would have a background check on them."

"Lord Potter, there might be something about the majority of the top wizards that could be a good news to you." Lucius' face twisted into a bitter smile. "If the rest of the world knows who has the Stone, the holder of the Stone would have to share its service with wizards around the world - I don't suppose anyone dares to face the wrath of the entire world."

-_Err, OK, this IS actually a good news for humanity. The problem is, we don't know what would happen if someone who is NOT that rational becomes the holder of the Stone._

Harry supposed, he needed another alternative plan, but he couldn't think of anything _safe_. "Mr. Malfoy, please keep thinking what other alternatives we have. And there is another matter that I need to tell you, so that you can ponder on its implications."

Harry observed Lucius closely, and then revealed the space mission to Lucius, with the potential danger exasperated a little and the part about Baikov omitted. As Harry had expected, Lucius showed shock, excitement, and also concern after he heard that Severus would be the astronaut. Harry knew Lucius could be an amazing actor if he wanted to, but Harry thought the concern for Severus' life was real to a certain extent.

After flattering on how smart and creative Harry was (Lucius was _really_ good at this), Lucius said: "If Severus can find anything that may save Dumbledore from Time, then most problems we have will be solved. If there is only regular Interdicted magic in our collection, and the news about this mission leaks -" Lucius' face turned a bit whiter, "Then, we - or at least Severus - will be in graver danger."

Harry was temporarily confused, and then he realized: _Capturing and torturing Severus for information wouldn't be that dangerous or hard as robbing the Stone, and it surely wouldn't cause the same level of wrath and endless hunting from the rest of the world. And in Severus' folly, he has leaked the information to Baikov. On another hand, since Lucius can think of the danger Severus would be in so quick, the ex-Lord Malfoy must care about Severus a lot. Moreover, Lucius is indeed genuinely quick on dark things._

Just as Harry was considering how to reveal the Baikov matter to Lucius, the blond wizard continued: "However, even if this mission fails to provide us instant security, it might be a way to solve a long term problem." Lucius hesitated a bit.

"What is it?" Harry asked.

Lucius delivered another matter that Harry hadn't thought of before he provided the service of the Stone to the world: "A side effect caused by the Stone is the blockage of the upward mobility of the youth. Even before the Stone, the problem has been there in the wizarding society. For example, Madam Griselda Marchbanks became a member of the Wizengamot at the age of one hundred and twenty-one, after her father passed away at the age of one hundred and fifty-seven. And now, since Madam Marchbanks has regained her youth, her eldest son may never become a member of the Wizengamot."

"Oh, that." Harry already knew a plan to solve that problem, "We can give a term to Wizengamot seats and any other posts like that, something like you can't serve more than x years in a y year period."

Lucius raised an eyebrow, as if asking Harry, how long Harry's leadership term would be.

-_Err…_

To be honest, Harry wanted to lead the humanity_ forever_, which meant that _Harry_ would become the one who blocked the way for others. Harry didn't really want to imagine the horrible scene where Harry was fighting with someone who was as smart as Harry for power. However, if the time scale was long enough, this someone would eventually turn up.

Hufflepuff wanted to assign a term for their own leadership, but Slytherin was against the idea: _Hey, we need to make sure that the humanity is safe, right? We may never fully anticipate where the danger might come from. And if it suddenly comes, and we are not the Leader, we may not have the authority and resources needed to stop the danger. According to Prophecies, _we_ are the only hope humanity has, remember?_

_Excuse! _Gryffindor roared.

Ravenclaw said: _I think we just need to know all the important knowledge. With knowledge, comes power. And that's enough for me._

While Harry was debating in his own mind, Lucius continued as if the eyebrow was raised for nothing: "If we can expand to other planets, there would be a lot of opened vacant seats, and the problem is partially solved."

Slytherin thoroughly agreed: _Yes! We can send the young aspirants to far-away galaxies, or even other universes, so that they won't fight for power with us._

Although Harry knew Hermione would scream at him for this, he still felt a bit relieved upon the prospect that he could hold the power for a tad longer, and -

-_In the name of Atlantis, the Malfoys are really good at serving their Lords._

I apologize for such a long time without an update. In the past year, I failed to win the H1-B lottery for the second time. For those who don't know, H1-B is a type of working visa to legally work in the US, and you have to enter a lottery in April to have a chance to get it. The chance of winning was ~30-50%. And since I failed twice and expired my OPT-allowed working period, I had to go back to China.

As a matter of fact, I am quite lucky to be from China, where there are quite some job opportunities where my knowledge and skills obtained during my PhD and postdoc years are highly valued, and my US-earned PhD would help me to move up the work-place ladder quicker. I know in a lot of parts of the world, not only there is practically no such position available, but also hard to survive for most people.


	54. Chapter 54 Space Travel, Part 11 Loyalty

Chapter 54.

Space Travel, Part XI: Loyalty Problem

11:09 am, July 27th, 1993

In the Boy-Who-Lived's headquarter office, Lucius watched as Mad-Eye Moody disappeared in green flames to do background checks on the list of top wizards that Lucius provided. Lucius hoped this mission could keep the old Auror busy for a while. And as the Boy-Who-Lived and the Girl-Who-Revived went to the newly conjured neighboring room to do some experiments, there were just Severus and Lucius left in this headquarter.

Lucius looked at Severus, who was noting down numbers on the experiment of how much "oxygen" Stella consumed while resting in a sealed transparent box. Lucius didn't quite know what to do with his best friend.

When the Boy-Who-Lived told Lucius about the whole Baikov matter, Lucius was almost speechless at the lack of tactfulness on Severus' part.

The lack of loyalty exhibited in Severus' dealing with Baikov wasn't a problem for Lucius at all - Lucius himself wasn't that loyal to the Boy-Who-Lived, either. He served this new Light Lord because he didn't want the world to end, and because he wanted Draco to secure his position in the new power structure. To be honest, if there was another powerful lord who could ensure the safety of the world, Lucius had no problem switching his loyalty again.

However, the lack of true loyalty to a leader didn't mean that you let the leader knew about it before you could kick your previous master to hell; especially, you shouldn't let your current master knew about it before you even get yourself a new one. And Severus, in his naivety and stupidity, had exactly done that.

-_In the name of Merlin, how did Severus Snape survive serving both the Dark Lord and Albus Dumbledore?_

-_Or does Severus think that he will die in the Moon mission, so he simply doesn't care? And that's why Severus has a phoenix on his shoulder now._

This hypothesis brought quite some horror to Lucius' heart. Lucius knew that Severus was the most powerful wizard that he could cling to, and both the length of his prison sentence and the level of privilege that he would have in Nurmengard depended on Severus. Strangely, Lucius found himself caring about Severus' life for reasons beyond that. Lucius knew true life debts might lead to unknown bonding between the two parties involved, and Lucius had almost lost count on how many life debts he owed Severus. Moreover, Severus had treated Draco and Lucius with friendship and loyalty that Lucius didn't quite expect and couldn't repay in the foreseeable future. Now, Lucius found himself caring that mannerless halfblood more than he had realized, at the time that he might lose him. Suddenly, Lucius was glad that Severus made a deal with Baikov behind Potter's back - the Boy-Who-Lived might veto the deal for security reasons, and Mad-Eye would surely object this deal with all means possible.

However, this didn't mean Severus had to do it so tactlessly - Lucius could name hundreds of ways to make the whole matter look better in the eyes of the Boy-Who-Lived. He really needed to teach the halfblood some maneuver.

An hour ago, under Potter's inquiry, Lucius could only let the Light Lord know that Severus had problems seeing dangers unless it was imminent.

-_What else can I say? Severus showed disobedience because he thought he would probably die? Or Severus doesn't want to die, but you might veto his plan to increase his chances of survival?_

Lucius didn't assume the Boy-Who-Lived was satisfied with his answer, for now he was left alone with Severus. Potter didn't exactly ask Lucius to help him align Severus' loyalty, but the indication was clear enough.

Lucius pondered his words, and then asked: "Severus, how dangerous is the Moon thing? Muggles went there and came back alive, right?"

The black-haired man started warding the place. After Severus was done, the black-haired wizard sighed, "I have no idea, Lucius. Both Americans and Soviets had tried to send wizards to the space by Muggle rockets, and both wizards were killed. We are trying to do it with magic."

"Severus, my brother -" Lucius let emotions run into his vocal cords, and heard his own voice tremble.

Severus sat down across the table from Lucius, and briefly avoided Lucius' eyes: "I am sorry, Lucius. If I were to know that I may make Draco lose someone again, I - I probably wouldn't be so close with him."

Lucius was a bit baffled by Severus' train of thoughts, but he quickly replied: "Oh, Severus, you don't need to worry about this. Or if you have to, just come back safely."

Severus smiled bitterly: "Lucius, I am truly sorry that my certain actions had put you and Draco into a hard position, I should have been more thoughtful."

This sentence from Severus horrified Lucius: _Does he really expect himself to die?_

Lucius tried to smile, and proudly announced: "Severus, you don't have to worry about us, we are the Malfoys."

Severus looked at Lucius as if looking at some naughty but cute kid, which annoyed and horrified Lucius on some unspeakable level.

-_Why is he looking at me as if I am a child asking for icecreams? This isn't a good sign._

The black-haired man then smile: "Lucius, I've started to feel all the petty squabbles between normal wizards quite pathetic, and I don't care about those things that much. For example, the rivalry between me and Mad-Eye, it wouldn't even be there if either of us wields real power."

Lucius' jaw slightly dropped. He didn't expect this from Severus. He knew wizards like Grindelwald cared more about the origin of magic than an unpleasant Unbreakable Vow, but Grindelwald still cared about mundane matters enough to start a war.

-_If Severus feels the rivalry between normal wizards pathetic, then what use can the Malfoys be to him?_

Severus rubbed his temple, and smiled with some self-deprecation: "Yeah, who am I to say such things? I am not a Lord, - at least, not in five to ten years. However, when I heard Oleg Baikov talking about his suicidal plan to Apparate multiple times to the space, just for a chance to know whether the Interdicts could be bypassed, and to be able to read Comrade Shakhov's collection of notes, I was really moved, and let my judgement slip." Severus blushed a little, and sighed, "Now, I know I should think more."

-_Oh, Merlin, Severus wouldn't take this Baikov as his new best friend, would he?_

Lucius suddenly felt his position as Severus' best friend shaken. He needed to formulate a rescue plan, _fast_.

Lucius was glad that they didn't conduct this conversation in Parseltongue, for he was saying "Severus, I understand", while as a matter of fact, Lucius didn't quite understand this mentality. "However, you need to be careful, and you need to remind Baikov to be careful as well."

Then, Lucius began to exaggerate the danger that Severus might face after he came back alive, in case the news of his mission got out.

This time, it was Severus' turn to drop his jaw. Obviously, before this point, the black-haired Lord-wannabe hadn't thought of that possibility at all.

Now, Lucius began to understand why all the top wizards he knew cared about mundane matters: _Those who didn't care about such matter were all killed before they got a chance_.

Lucius had to prevent his eyes from sparkling: _Merlin, this can be my position to Severus! Oh, and my position in the world, too! Hmm, Draco and his Lord are friends, and I should learn how to serve a Lord who is also my friend as well. It would be ideal that if Draco's Lord and my Lord are allies. _

For the ex-Lord Malfoy, helping a potential new lord who was currently in alliance with the Light Lord that both of them were serving didn't even constitute betrayal. Lucius was pretty sure that he could still claim his loyalty to the Boy-Who-Lived in Parseltongue, but he had to check on it in private.

Lucius fought down his impulse to smile, and started selling his service at mundane matters to the black-haired wizard who had twice defeated a Comrade-to-be.


	55. Chapter 55 Space Travel,12, Phoenix

Chapter 55.

Space Travel, Part XII: Abilities of Phoenixes

6:52 pm, July 27th, 1993

Harry stared at the data they collected today for phoenix energy and food consumption, with Dad laughing hard and Hermione giggling in the background.

Originally, Harry had estimated phoenixes would consume similar amount of oxygen and food as non-magical birds of the same size. However, Stella proved that assumption wrong once and again.

First, Stella was asked to sleep in the dormant status in the transparent measurement box, which Dad provided the design, Severus transfigured into reality, and fixed by the Stone. The oxygen she consumed and carbon dioxide she produced was only approximately 1/150 of a sleeping non-magical turkey, measured with the same set of device. This meant phoenixes were really efficient in energy conservation, which wasn't that surprising according to the standards of magic, but that was enough to make Professor Michael Verres-Evans' eyeballs drop - he couldn't understand how a bird with slightly higher body temperature than a human being could use so little energy.

The second experiment was to measure the metabolism rate of Stella when she was awake and walked around in the measurement box. This time, the oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production was about one tenth of that of a turkey. Considering the fact that Stella was going on a trip to the Moon, this was a good news.

Then, Harry asked Severus what kind of food phoenixes ate. Severus answered that he had seen Fawkes eating Dumbledore's sweets, while Stella preferred cuttlefish. Harry wanted to ask whether Severus liked cuttlefish, and whether Severus had conveniently omitted certain food items that were attractive to bats, but he decided to ask how much food Stella ate per day instead. To this question, Severus slightly frowned, and answered: "Stella seems to have an almost bottomless stomach. I have once fed her about ten kilograms of cuttlefish, she not only ate all the meat, but also did it without any apparent increase in her weight. And from the looks, she could eat a lot more. However, Stella can also go without eating anything for a whole day."

Harry knew Aguamenti produced water without the disappearance of water from any known lake, and there was a charm named "Arresto Momentum", so the Conservation of Mass, Energy and Momentum Laws of Muggle physics didn't really apply while magic was around. However, this was still somewhat hard for Harry to accept without seeing it with his own eyes.

Harry took out a mechanical balance from his pouch, and asked Stella to stand on it. The balance said 10.4 kilograms. Harry asked a house-elf to get one pound of cuttlefish, and let Severus fed Stella. As the amount of meat on Severus' hand diminished, Harry watched the number on the balance grew slowly from 10.4 to 10.9 kilograms, and suddenly, with a few flaps of wings, the number dropped to 10.5 pounds.

Professor Michael Verres-Evans' eyeballs dropped again, and so were Harry's.

-_Stella converted most of the food she just ate into carbon dioxide and water with a few flaps of wings?_

That was the only reasonable Harry could come up with, and he had to test this. Therefore, Stella and ten pounds of cuttlefish were put into the transparent measurement box, this time with a larger mechanical balance below the whole system. Stella seemed to enjoy this part of the experiment a lot, for she happily ate the cuttlefish, with occasional flaps of wings. To Harry's slight relief, the weight of the entire system stayed constant, which meant that the Conservation of Mass still applied here. Harry knew this didn't mean much in face of the arbitrary acceptance of Muggle physics by magic, but it was good to know some part of the magical world still ran in similar laws as in the Muggle one.

Just at this moment, Hermione yelled urgently: "Stella, are you comfortable?"

Stella raised her head, curiously cawed, and turned back her food.

Everyone looked at Hermione curiously, and the Girl-Who-Revived explained: "This device was designed to measure _slow _oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production, so it provided oxygen from the oxygen tank _slowly_. If my estimation is right, each time Stella flaps wings, the oxygen level in the box should drop to around 1% to 4%, and this could lead to suffocation in seconds for non-magical animals."

And apparently, Stella didn't care about how the stupid respiratory system of non-magical animals worked. She just pecked the cuttlefish, and occasionally flapped her wings, consuming the majority of oxygen in the container.

Harry knew what Stella was doing was not that impressive by the standards of magic - for whatever reason, his pouch could ate heavy books without any increase of weight on a mechanical balance - but this was still amazing.

-_And in the name of Atlantis, how do phoenixes store energy?_

Professor Michael Verres-Evans was also admiring the golden-red firebird, and said in a mesmerized voice: "Oh my God, Stella is designed for space travel, isn't she?"

Before Harry knew about magic, he had been against the idea that the appearance of any natural animal was "designed" by some higher power. However, the two years in the magical world already taught him better. Wizards had been breeding magical animals according to their arbitrary designs for thousands of years. For example, after reading the Auror interrogation reports on Hagrid, Harry had absolutely no idea how the half-giant cross-bred fire crabs, which were a kind of arthropods with gems on their shells (if Muggle taxonomy meant anything here), with manticores, which were sapient lion-like mammals with human-level intelligence. Harry didn't really want to ponder on the ethic questions on how Hagrid made a proud English-speaking creature to mate with a crab, or whether blast-ended skrewts were sapient.

Therefore, Harry decided to test the bold hypothesis that Dad proposed. After several hours of testing, it seemed that Dad was right: Stella could withstand heat up to 150 degrees Celsius; and she could stay in a container submerged in liquid nitrogen for at least 15 mins, and the inside temperature of the container was around -150 degrees Celsius with firebird's slight heating. Stella could also live with low oxygen level and low vacuum, for 1 Torr of oxygen alone could make Stella happy, and she could withstand vacuum around 0.01 Torr (the lowest pressure Harry's cheap second-hand mechanical vacuum pump could provide) for at least five minutes. And phoenixes obviously didn't suffer from decompression sickness, for Stella could jump back and forth between the vacuum container and atmosphere without any problem.

By the end, everyone agreed: phoenixes were indeed designed for space missions.

-_Therefore, the rumor that phoenix came from the Mirror might be true, and Atlanteans probably did want the good and brave phoenix owners to explore the space. And for thousands of years, wizards on Earth didn't figure this out._

Then, a weird idea came to Harry, and he asked: "Professor Snape, can Stella eat some non-traditional food, such as sulfur, and metals?"

Severus, who had been both amazed by Stella's ability and annoyed by Harry's ideas to "torture" the poor creature, stared at Harry as if he would protect his pet from any further cruelty: "Mr. Potter, although sulfur is a potion ingredient, and some stupid Muggles had considered gold ingestion as a good idea, I wouldn't recommend metals to anyone as food."

Harry and Dad had to explain green sulfur bacteria and iron bacteria metabolism to the wide-eyed potioneer. Finally, Severus reluctantly agreed to let Stella try. Harry briefly considered the possible products of sulfur oxidation, and decided that need to be tried in a closed container with a lot of alkali. However, after Stella reluctantly ate some cutted iron wires, and excreted some red solids - possibly iron(III) oxide, Harry guessed he didn't really need to try sulfur. However, there was indeed another reaction that Harry wanted to try. "Err, Professor Snape, can Stella eat magnesium and burn it in nitrogen?"

The bad-tempered phoenix owner seethed through gritted teeth: "Mr. Potter, you have at most two other experiments to run with Stella today, so plan wisely."

Stella cawed in agreement.

Harry supposed that coming up with various seemingly cruel experiments that you wanted to conduct on a phoenix wasn't the best way to consolidate the loyalty from its owner, and the "two experiments" limit was particularly cruel on a Ravenclaw.

Harry stuttered: "Em, ah, Professor Snape, it's time for dinner now. Could you give me sometime to think?"

The moment Severus and Draco disappeared in Stella's flames, Hermione began giggling and Dad began laughing hard: "Oh, Harry, this - this professor does know you!"

Harry tried to focus on the datasheet, and determined that he was the only _sane_ person in the world at this moment.

Note: Has anyone considered the questions that whether Hagrid's mother was capable of consent, and whether Hagrid's father raped her? And to mate a crab, and a creature with human-level intelligence? Seriously?


End file.
